In the Wake of the Ferry

In the Wake of the Ferry

When in Manhattan I try to take the Staten Island Ferry across and back which gives me great motifs to paint with my watercolors.

In the Wake of the Ferry

7" x 9" watercolor

by Keith Gunderson

Here are two versions of this scene painted by John Sloan around 1907, along with an intaglio etching. Sloan titled the two paintings "In the Wake of the Ferry".Version one  is in the Phillips collection in Philadelphia and version two is in Detroit.

This was an etching Sloan made around the same time.

Ellis Island

Here's a plein -aire sketch of Ellis Island from Liberty State Park in Jersey City. It's late afternoon, just before sunset, and the rays of the sun were creating this beautiful shimmering progression in the sky and water, almost like one sees in the Venetian paintings of Moran and Sargeant. That's the Staten Island ferry on the left, plowing it's way back and forth across New York harbor. Brooklyn and the Verrazzano bridge loom in the distance.