Art and craft

Passing by the old harbour today I spotted this couple seated on a mooring. She was intent on sketching a small sailing boat tied up beside the quay and every few seconds would look up, stretch out her pencil to assess the measurements and return to her drawing pad. Her companion's attention had wandered: he had eyes only for the nifty lines of a small craft, named Aquarius, beached on the shingle close by.

I went to have a look and it was a remarkably attractive rowing boat, clinker-built in the ancient north European style (meaning that the planks overlap rather than fit edge-to-edge in the carvel type of construction.) It looked old but lovingly renovated, and, unusually in this age of fibreglass, made all of wood, varnished and fitted out 'ship-shape and Bristol fashion'.

I would say there's more that one kind of artistry here.

[For another, but dilapidated, example of a clinker-built boat see an earlier [url=http://www.blipfoto.com/entry/1053894]blip[/url] of mine.]