Boat in Port c. 1929 - 1931

Paul Signac made this painting of a Boat in Port in watercolour and graphite with touches of coloured crayon on paper. I love the casual strokes and the way he’s worked on top of the paper, almost like he’s sketching, but with a paintbrush instead of a pencil. You can see the harbour but Signac is more concerned with the feeling of being on the water, the bobbing of the boat, the breeze, and the atmosphere. Look at the cloud formations in the upper right corner. They are scribbled and chaotic. I imagine him sitting on the docks, a small pad on his lap, quickly and spontaneously capturing the movement of the clouds. Maybe he was thinking of Impressionist masters like Monet, who also tried to seize these fleeting moments. Signac uses the immediacy of watercolour to capture the effects of light and atmosphere on the scene. There is no hiding, it is all there on the surface. This is not just a picture of a boat, it is a picture of seeing and feeling.