Waiting for the Spill
Oil on panel, unframed 9"x12", framed 17.75" x 14.75". This is the Maine Responder docked at Union Wharf in Portland Harbor, a pollution control vessel that was enlisted to help with the clean-up of the Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010. I was painting on Merrill's Wharf on a busy, overcast day with the pungent smell of herring, fishermen unloading their catch of herring with huge vacuum machines, boats motoring, workers swabbing, tackle cluttering, all contrasting with a slick blue and white ship waiting like a Swiss Guard for the next environmental threat.