This is a painting I began work on last year when my wife and I lived on Whidbey Island, in Washington State. It's a beautiful island in the Puget Sound with spectacular views of the Olympic mountains to the west, and the Cascades to the east. I really hated to leave, but the economic downturn forced a change of plans.

On the west side of the island is the Keystone ferry dock, with service to Port Townsend across the Admiralty Inlet. This is an area where I loved spending my free time. I would watch the ferry coming and going, or relax at the Keystone Cafe (great mochas) while watching the great blue herons and bald eagles. I also enjoyed walking up the bluff to wander the old Admiralty Head Battery with it's enormous guns keeping vigil over the water.

So this is kind of a moody, lonely piece, and has a lot to do with the way I was feeling one particular day. I was having a lot of thoughts about choices and destiny, and was questioning what the future held. There aren't any cars or people getting on or off of this ferry, and just one soul stands at the station. I don't know if he gets onto the ferry or not, but I have the sense that this one doesn't necessarily go to Port Townsend.

I took a lot of liberties with the layout of the place as this point of view doesn't exist in reality. It's more of a combination of several different perspectives in one composition. I used many kinds of brushes that ended up looking like graphite, ink, charcoal, pastels, color pencil, and airbrush.

I hope you like it. Thanks for looking.