Abstraction generally involves implication, suggestion and mystery, rather than obvious description.

Robert Genn

If I were a painter, I’d want to be an abstract painter. Well, that won’t happen in this lifetime, but I can make abstract images using my camera.

Hanging around a boatyard this last while, getting our sailboat ready to launch, and doing my Simplicity Project at the same time, I’ve come to appreciate the exquisite beauty of deteriorating bottom paint on boats.

A lot of boats have a build up of bottom paint that hasn’t been removed. Most bottom paint is like a bar of soap. As the boat moves through the water the paint dissolves. And every year or two a new layer is put on that may be a different colour. By changing the colour the owner of the boat can tell when the bottom of the boat needs to be repainted. The particular accumulation over time can become visually arresting.  Some boats with iron keels have rust spots too.

So in the spirit of “use what you have” and “appreciate what’s around you,” I’m taking advantage of the startlingly lovely patterns and colours that I used to look right past to make images that intrigue me.

We’ll be busy launching the boat over the next few days, so I’m grouping three days of my project together in this post since they’re all related “boat bottom abstracts.”

For many splendid images of simplicity, visit the Flickr group, Photographic Simplicity. Inspired by Kim Manley Ort.