USS Saratoga CVA60

USS Saratoga CVA 60

By Sir Ernie Hamilton Boyette

The USS Saratoga CVA 60 is more than an American aircraft carrier, it is a continuous line of legionary United States Navy fighting ships sailing and fighting under the name, Saratoga.

The carrier was stationed at Mayport Naval Air Station, Jacksonville, Florida from the time of her launching until the ships decommissioning.

The Sara CVA 60 was present in every ocean during every conflict during the carriers long service.

I will do more research here in the future.

This carrier has much history especially in Jacksonville, Florida.

I am painting the USS Saratoga CVA 60. The photos below show the daily process of the painting.

Above is the painting I started in November 2006. I stopped for several reasons. First it was obvious that this artwork would be indeed work, a lot of work. Two, I had aviators that I needed to work with. Working with our living legends was far more important at the time. So here I am on March 14, 2010 and this is where I am starting from. In November 2006 I spent two could be three days on the painting. The size of the canvas is 2x4'.

This painting has been in the back room for a while. I deliberately put this half started painting out after the first of the year where I would be forced to look at. I have the paintings I am working on out on easels where I see them everyday. SO I had this out along with four other paintings that I am working on right now. Of all the other paintings I have out, I have pecked at each one except this one. For some reason I wanted to finish the Saratoga painting yet I am busy with the other paintings which are far more important.

Over the past two months this painting always caught my eye as I surveyed the other paintings as they progressed. The painting started to bug me a little. I knew that once started, the Saratoga would take several dozen hours to finish. I could do two painting profiles in the time it would take me to finish the Sara.

But the painting started to get more of my attention. I started to think about it. I remembered the problems I had when I worked on it in the past. I really had to stop working on it because something else came up that was needed. Yet I was spending mental time thinking about the painting and trying to keep myself from screwing with it right now. I would do it later.

Then on the afternoon of the 14th I was overtaken with the canvas and I grabbed it up and laid it out on my counter that I paint on. I needed to take a photo of the canvas before I started. After I took the photo above I started working on the rocks in the water because they are what made me loose interest in the painting last time I was working on it. They were taking too long and all the angles were different.

Anyway today I worked on and off for hours on the rocks and started to paint in the water and finally the sky. The photo below shows what I ended with on the night of the 14th. I painted until 10:P.M. that night.

10:00 A.M. March 15, 2010

This is where I am starting today. I spent a lot of time painting in the rocks only to smear paint all over them in re-working the water. So I will now have to "touch-up" the rocks.

6:00 P.M. March 15, 2010

I thought that I would paint the hull dark and work my way up to lighten the ship to the proper gray needed.

Touching up the rocks took over an hour or more.

6:00 P.M. March 16, 2010

I did not take a photo this morning and this was the afternoon before I lost the light outside. I worked a lot on the water. I am not very good with water and sky thus spending an ungodly amount of time on both. I am close and that is enough with me. The photo does not show all the water properly (it looks better than the photo shows here) but I do not want to take close up photos right now until I have more details of the whole painting. Again I painted until ten o'clock at night.

10:00 A.M. March 17, 2010

Here I am starting to add in the many superstructure additions to the massive hull.

7:00 P.M. March 17, 2010

It was already dark outside so I used the flash on this photo inside. Note the glare on the fresh paint. I was forced to paint the hull the correct color of light gray first and then start the shading. However I spent over an hour going from dark to light only to give up and go light to dark. This was a use of about two hours, and at least an hour pacing back and forth studying the painting trying to figure out the best approach. My mother told me that when she had art lessons her teacher told her "Not to be afraid to make mistakes, you can always paint them out and start over." I just hate to start over. I want to get it done, even though I enjoy watching the painting develop it's like actually building the ship. However I am not getting union shipyard pay scale. I need to finish this up as soon as possible. I want to build a carrier in the time it took to build a Liberty Ship.

10:00 A.M. March 18, 2010

Now I am adding more of the superstructure. I had to paint the new addition twice because I got the shades of gray wrong.

Little things held me up today. Painting and re-painting takes hours to paint and then repaint. Did that make sense?, yes it did because in Art you paint stuff in, and if it does not fit, you paint it out. I just hate to waist time. On my profile art I know what to paint and where to paint so I have no wasted time. When I work on an artwork like this, I have no option but to stumble through it. The talent comes easily and naturally enough, but mistakes are sometimes often and numbing after a while.

It was the rocks that took so much of my time and took me away from the painting in the past. And let me tell you the rocks took many hours this time and before I finish I will spend another hour or two more on them. I have the rocks painted in now but I need to show wear and weathering on them as I finish. In the mean time I will work on the ship. Tomorrow I will get a plastic model of the Sara and work from it because the photo I am working from is very vague. Even though I have many books on US aircraft carriers, I have NO PHOTO of the Sara from the angel I need. I even went on the internet and only found a few photos I can work from.

The plastic model should show me everything I need to finish the painting.

8:00 A.M. March 21, 2010 Sunday Morning.

Saturday afternoon I started working on the Sara after I built a scale model of the carrier. The photo I am working from is very vague in some of the carrier detail. So I built a model of the ship. I stopped or halted work on the painting Thursday night knowing that I had gone as far as I could go before I had a better diagram of the ship. I got the model Friday afternoon and spent several hours Friday night and most of the day Saturday assembling the model. After I finished and looked the model over I stood up right away and grabbed my canvas and started to change as well as add. Again on several areas I would paint and then after drying would decide to change the shade and repaint the area. To get the multi-layer effects of the different hull shapes and the walkways and different structures makes for a multiple combination of "Light, Dark, Light, Dark." I need to give the eye something to hang on to in distinguishing the different shapes and shadows.

This is what I have found that "Art Is." To work in entertaining the eye. Giving it excitement, pause for alarm, comfort, warm feeling and so on. What I like about painting the Sara is that it is much like the assembly of the scale model. You add this part, you paint this part. You let it dry. Add another piece and paint in another as well. Its like building a model/painting of your subject. I like this. Of all the many things I have done in my life, this "Art", is something very special. It is a talent that I did not know I had and I do appreciate the ability. Art is true and honest. Art also represents everything in humanity and in nature. Nature is art. So using art to make or let's say appreciate nature is as pure a form of natural complement as one can offer. Art lets you become closer with your fellow species as well as in your embrace of nature.

I build ships and I build airplanes, with my pencil and paint brush. How cool is that?

8:30 A.M. March 22, 2010 Monday Morning.

I spent a few hours (Ha, ha, a lot!) Sunday on the Sara. I am adding details. There will be many things to add plus the crew that will line the deck. That will take half a day alone. I could have had another painting started and completed in the time that I have spent on the Sara so far. I estimate that I will spend the same amount of time to do two and one half of my ordinary paintings on this artwork alone. This is why I do not tackle paintings like this because in all cases I need to get the painting finished as soon as possible. I will do more of these in the future, but not to many.

9:00 A.M. March 23, 2010 Tuesday Morning.

I spent a quite a few hours on the Sara yesterday and last night. Details, details, and more details were added and will be added the next day or so until I realize that the painting is finished. That seems like a million years from now. The painting changed a lot so I made the above image a little larger so you can see more.

Yesterday I started some research on the Sara and added photos below I got from the internet. I will add more as I find them.

9:30 A.M. March 24, 2010 Wednesday Morning.

I again spent a quite a few hours on the Sara yesterday and last night. This is coming together quite nicely. There is an end in sight. It took a steady hand to paint all the sailors lining the deck of the ship. I then finished up the tower and the side railings. Added some to the clouds. I tried to find anything I could add or anything over looked. As far as I can tell I am finished with the ship except for minute details. It was fun to add the Coast Guard boat and the man with the flag.

My goal next with the painting is the shading of the ships hull and the weathering of the rocks. This should bring the texture of the art all together. I use in most cases soft pastels applied in layers with q-tips for the shading and weathering. I need to highlight the ship completely along with the rocks first. I find it easier to start light and go dark. Or it is easier for me and since I am self taught and under a tight schedule. I need to work on the other four paintings that will become new prints in the summer and fall. In the mean time the Sara and an F-14 will be my next new additions to my series that honor our men and women who serve our country.

The man's name in the painting above is Mat Miller. Mat was so inspired that he got up early in the morning and went to the jetties to the entrance of the May Port Naval Station with a large American flag and waited. He witness the sun rise and enjoyed the cool ocean breeze until the Sara came into view. As the carrier passed with its sailors crowning the flight deck Mat was the first to welcome the carrier back from a successful Gulf War in 1991.

I am already planning how the artwork will be published. The Sara will be the third in my series of Famous Warships. My next two prints will be the Saratoga and an F-14 flown by David McCall. David will be the 35th aviator in my series of Famous American Aviators. With the Sara published as number three in the Warship series and David as number 35 in the American Aviator series, they will actually be number 82 and 83 of the total number of prints that I have published since 1993. I will also be publishing my 84th print in April as well. My goal in 2010 is to publish ten new prints. To this date I have published two and in April I will add three more to my publishing schedule.

If you served on the Sara or know a friend or relative who served on the Sara the prints will be available in April and they will retail for $17.50 with $5.00 for shipping any where in the U.S. and $8.00 any where in the world.

I hope you enjoy my narrative and the step-by-step progress of my newest painting.

IT'S FINISHED!

3:00 A.M. March 24, 2010 Wednesday Afternoon.

I am finished. I am pleased with the out come of the painting, but it was like building a boat.

This took 9 days to paint. I need to add the 2 days I worked on it in November 2006. Eleven days, that is work. Every night I went to bed I was tired of standing and leaning over the canvas on and off all day and night. I slept well and I spelt well indeed the night I was finished. This painting has been a goal to complete and add this famous aircraft carrier to my series of Famous Warships. My next addition will be the USS Enterprise, WWII era.

Photos of the Saratoga

Here are the photos I got off the internet.