Oil on Canvas

36"x60"

SOLD

Gicleé on watercolor paper

30" x 48" $350.

unframed

Having grown up in the 1950’s, I remember the ferryboat, “Nellie B” very well. I had an Aunt Nellie, so the name stuck. Ferryboats held nine cars in those days, compared to twenty today. The ferry was my link to good times throughout my life, as they must have also been for passengers in 1939.

A few years ago I was looking through old black and white historical images at the Port Aransas Museum.  I love history and was hoping to find material for a historical series of paintings. Or, maybe I was just looking to remember my youth.

The museum was kind enough to allow me to use several images from their archive. I used the photos for the details, and colors that I remember of the “old” coast. I painted the scene on a bright sunny day, as if everything had just been given a fresh coat of paint –– perhaps out of respect. It’s the way I want to remember it.

I researched the cars and believe this photo was taken in about 1939. To me, white buildings with red or green asbestos roofs were typical. Varnished Mahogany boats, along with white, wooden boats with colored trim filled the harbor in my youth. My family built several of these boats before I was born. The one I knew was called, “Holiday.”

The Felder’s and the Parker’s have been residents, and summer residents, of Port Aransas for as long as I can remember –– and long before that. I grew up in San Antonio, but spent much of my youth in Port A.

My grandfather transformed a surplus, wooden, Army barracks into his coast house on Avenue C, next to Woody’s house; and later my father, Camp, and my uncle, Fred Parker, also built homes. I started painting Port Aransas while in grade school. I have Port A in my blood!

So, I was thrilled when I found this image to paint, and am now honored that it will have a public audience at THE perfect location.

I felt like I was bringing history to life when I was painting it. I hope people can look at it now, and well into the future, and put themselves back there –– in that simpler place and time.