Artwork can take you down some very interesting roads and recently the Halifax waterfront has been one of them. I had begun sketching along the shore a few years ago and recently the view has been very interesting and on a super grand scale. It is a display of modern ship building.
A few days ago a giant ship with cranes and two prebuilt sections of ships arrived in the harbour. As I made the drawing below one of the sections had already been lowered onto its water hull and moved aside by tugs, the second piece waited to be moved into place.
I wondered how it would be possible to have all this happen and before long I found myself watching a giant puppet show. The large beams and their attachments were swung using long ropes to guide the assembly between the buildings and the ship itself. An amazing dance of steel and wire and workers all moving with a common purpose. Amazing.
Only hours later on the shore at Annapolis Royal we were treated to a display of old time wooden boat building with the construction of a "Tancook Whaler". Dancing to a different tune.
