"Palm Beach Pumphouse"

11 x 14 (plein air)

I did this one during the annual family vacation to Palm Beach. I write "Palm Beach", but I should actually write Singer Island. It is Palm Beach Gardens and it is really nice. This is what we call "the pumphouse". It is at the jetty on the Singer Island side. The pipes that run into the wall of the jetty actually go all the way across the channel to the other side and move sand from Singer Island to Palm Beach. It has something to do with the jetty messing up the natural flow of the current and the sand. Anyway, it is a giant "thing" and it is not easy to paint. Its like a big cube that doesn't belong in the picture. I decided to tackle it this year and I like how this came out. I also decided to work on putting more figures in my landscapes and I was able to do that here and also in some other pieces I did during the week. Here, I think the figures are essential. The two guys on the catwalk were workers from the county. After I started they turned the pumphouse on and opened the doors. They stood up there talking about something. (I'm sure it was work related.) One of the gentlemen was retiring from the county and had been in charge of the pumphouse for a number of years. He asked about the painting, but I forgot to get his name and number before I left. This would make a nice retirement gift. Maybe I should do some research.

Thanks for looking.