On my recent visit to the Herreshoff Musemum at Bristol RI I was so pleased to find a fully rigged model of Colonia. Colonia was Nat Herrehoffs first great schooner and a yacht that would inspire the great line of schooners that would include Ingomar, Queen, Elena and Westward.. Colonia had originally been built as a sloop in 1893 as a potential defender of the 1893 America’s Cup, she lost out in the defender trials to Vigilant a fellow Herreshoff design but being of sound construction she was later modified to a schooner rig and with Charlie Barr went on to have a very successful career. During the late 1890s and early 1900s Colonia raced the finest of the New York Yacht Clubs schooner fleet including such great schooners as Emerald, Aerial, Qussetta, Amorita and Elmina.

Seeing the model reminded me of a mock up I did for a painting of her using my 3d model in 2008. My recent visit has inspired my next project to bring this historic yacht to life. I’ll be using this mock up along with reference photos from last years visit to the Herreshoff Museum to produce a close in action painting of the schooner Colonia.

It’s mt intension to share the various steps of the process for this new painting on this blog