Paintings – The Long Haul

About The Long Haul:

Completed: October 2025
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Finishing Products Used: Golden Isolation Coat + ~5 coats of Golden MSA Gloss varnish w/UVLS
Measurements (frame + painting): 40 x 27.5 inches / 101.6 x 69.85 centimeters
Frame notes: Burnt pine base / acrylic details / Polycrylic topcoat / Wire hanger on back / Shiny brass oxidized info plate
Price: Not presently for sale

Many years ago, while discussing the harrowing trials one can face out at sea and all the ways human naval and shipbuilding technology can fail, a friend of mine made me die laughing by saying something absurd. “Okay, but what if you were stuck out at sea in one of those bouncy castle things you see at kids’ birthday parties?”

I became fixated on that silly mental image. Fwughox.com wasn’t even a year old at the time, but it existed, and I decided to write a story that felt thematically appropriate to the sort of thing I was doing with the site at the time – surreal and incomprehensible, yet playful. In the painting, you can see the protagonist of that story, Dion, sharing a calm moment out at sea in his punishment vessel with his dolphin friend. The castle is equipped with only the bare minimum of what he needs – solar panels, supply bags filled with “the essentials”, a desalinator for drinking water, and the few bits and bobs required to utilize those things.

From the get-go, I wanted to challenge myself to paint visually striking, satisfyingly water – I studied a lot of other artists who do ocean/beach scenes for this, in particular Dale Bernhardt.