Watercolor Paintings of Aruba, Jamaica, Bermuda and Martinique
Written by Teresita Blanco (The Artsy Sister)
The order of these paintings might seem a little bit on the nose. Now that I think about it, it is just a happy coincidence as all. As far as the subject matter is concerned, I wanted to do places I have not been to. As of lately, I have been practicing watercolor paintings.
I like painting with watercolors. They are pretty easy for me to manage. I don’t have to wait forever for things to dry. As I work with them, I figure out new things. I also did a bit of acrylics on the side. Whenever I wanted to sharpen the whites, I used acrylics on the paintings.
I mainly had to use them on the sky. Aside from the paintings, I also did a little stop motion video. I used the paints as the main subject matter of the video. I wanted the dolls to talk about those pretty places I painted. I did the paintings based on photos.
I changed some of the elements here, and there like the boats, the sky and the water. I also changed the look of the maiden in the Jamaica painting. I will elaborate more on that when I get to it. For now, I will start talking about the Aruba painting.
This painting takes place in the Black Stone beach. I focused on the crevices because they seemed like an interesting architectural feature. Before the bad times, a lot of folks used to visit Aruba. Aruba belongs to the Netherlands. They are part of the ABC Islands.
The place is known to have a desert like climate. You can see plenty of cute little cactuses, here and there. Aruba is also one of the few islands in the Caribbean that does not get Hurricanes. Well, if they do get a hurricane it is once in a blue moon.
Like almost all places in the Caribbean, it spent some time colonized. These days it is mainly known for being a placed liked by Tourists. Thankfully, they make their money on oil, so they don’t need people to survive. It is never wise to depend on tourism.
I am not going to continue on that train of thought. Aside from the beaches, Aruba has plenty of Flamingoes. They do not frequent Black Stone Beach. I still added them to the painting as a point of interest. The next painting is about Jamaica.
I painted a maiden on a raff sailing down one of the Eight Rivers, or Ocho Rios. She is wearing the national dress of Jamaica. I thought it would look nice in the painting, and so I dressed her like that. Normally, the people of Jamaica dress in regular attires.
Jamaica was one of the many colonies of Spain. Almost all the indigenous population got ate. They where then replaced by slaves from Africa, China and India. Over the years, they developed their own cultural identity, and religion known as Rastafari.
I studied that religion while at University. I learned to understand a lot Jamaican songs. Jamaica like most little island nations is trying its best. Before the bad times, they had the lowest unemployment in over 50 years. I hope that they are still managing well. The following place I painted was Bermuda.
I just painted a random neighborhood as seen from a boat. I liked the color of the houses. I painted a rainbow and a spaceship in the sky. I like the idea of aliens. They seem like fun chaps. I ranted a bit about aliens in the video. I said that Bermuda was a good place for human adoption.
The boat in the foreground was painted with warm colors. I thought it broke the coldness of the blue ocean. By then, I was getting a little better with the water. I am still not at the point where I can make a turbulent ocean. Still, I can render calm water very nicely.
The sky is also a work in progress. Sometimes it comes out good, other times I am not certain about it. The final painting features Martinique. I was between painting a cool looking church or something else. I went for something else. I had already a landscape painted from the ocean, looking onto the land.
While looking at photos, I saw this cool looking Totem or something. From there, you can look at Diamond Island. It seemed like a cool spot in Martinique. I do not know if it is still there or not. There have been a lot of statue vandalism in Martinique.
They want to become an independent nation. They are tired of being a Colony of the French. So, if tourists do ever visit Martinique, now you know the meaning behind the statue decapitations.
It’s a French thing, after all. Don’t forget the French invented the guillotine. I think this is enough information about my silly paintings. I hope you find the four of them amusing. In this blog, I also included the doll video about these painting.
