Painting in the Bahamas ...Trip Report Day One

'In the Bahamas'      4x6    gouache   ©Karen Margulis

Cruising sure has changed!  Before cell phones and the internet,  when you left home port you were pretty much off the grid unless you wanted to pay for an expensive ship to shore phone call.  Now we are connected even at sea.  Cruise ships have internet access and on the Carnival Dream you can now buy an unlimited high speed internet plan.  So here I am in my cabin reporting live.

Today we stopped in Nassau, Bahamas.  it was just a short stop so we decided to stay on the ship and relax.  It was cloudy and drizzly in the morning so we had a time trying to find a sheltered lounge that was dry. We wanted to be outside despite the cloudy weather. During the morning the sun came in and out and it was in the upper 70's so we can't complain.

I decided to paint with my new gouache set up today.  In the photo below you can see my set up.  I have a small Stay-Wet Palette, some brushes, a few tubes of paint, a collapsable water bottle and a small container for water.  It all fit nicely in a clear plastic zippered bag. 

My Lounge Chair Gouache Set-Up

I used the lid of the palette to put my paper in while I painted. I used a 4x6 piece of coverstock paper. It held a lot of paint without buckling. I painted a scene that I could see from my vantage point on the deck of the ship. It was a distant beach lined with palm trees. here was a large hotel behind the trees but I took artistic license to remove the trees.  I really enjoyed the gouache. It was similar to pastels in the way I could layer color and it was so much neater!  I really worked well for lounge chair painting.

Tomorrow we are at sea all day. I am hoping for a nice sunny day with little wind which would be the ideal conditions for lounge chair painting. Tomorrow I will take out the pastels!