Description
Giclée reproduction of “Tempest” from the original watercolor painting by artist Scott Kennedy in 2000.
The original painting is available for sale! <Click here to contact us for more info.>
About the making of “Tempest”
The making of “Tempest” began in 2000 as I boarded the tallship HMS Rose at Bowen’s Wharf in Newport, Rhode Island. My intent was to create a painting for the ship’s sail training organization from Bridgeport, Connecticut.
The ship’s captain, Richard Bailey, skippered and maintained her for well over two decades, and we had been friends for some years. I was quite familiar with this three-masted frigate from the revolutionary period – all 80 tons and 165 feet of her.
I would sail from Newport, Rhode Island, to New York Harbor with the crew. There, we would receive passengers for the Fourth of July celebration and tall ship parade.
The course around the outside of Long Island provided favorable winds allowing me to make sketches and also work alongside the crew. On the afternoon of July 3rd, we turned into lower New York bay and then under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.
We still had two of our largest sails up…the main top and the fore top. When it was time to gather them up for a tight harbor furl, I chose the foremast. I climbed aloft and out on the starboard side of the yard arm with nine others tending the same sail.
And then this rendering earned its title
As we fisted the heavy sail, we noticed the wind suddenly pick up. We turned our heads to see an ominous squall line beginning to overtake us. The winds howled and the Rose heeled to starboard as rain turned to hail. Lightening began striking the water all around us some 80 feet below.
We had to keep pulling and tying down, yelling at each other to be heard over the screaming of the rigging. We looked at each other with both terror and awe as the sky turned black and the ship yielded to the forces of nature.
As suddenly as the tempest came upon us, it left us. The sky changed to purple, then to green and then cleared completely.
I am fortunate to have witnessed such a beautiful experience. The feelings of stillness of mind and surrender helped inspire the painting.
Similar work
See also the depiction of Rose (now Surprise) in the oil painting “The Hunt for L’Acheron”, done in 2002.
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