Running Tide: An Oil Painting by Don Demers
Don Demers created a small seascape that began as a quiet scene of the Maine coast near Boothbay — a tranquil expanse of sea, a tree-covered island and an idealized sky. The painting changed direction when a working lobster boat unexpectedly entered the composition, transforming a peaceful coastal study into a vivid portrait of work and movement on the water.
The Moment That Changed the Painting
“While I was painting, this lobster boat came around the bend and started hauling a string of traps,” Demers recalls. He doesn’t usually rely on photographs, but because the boat was moving and turning quickly, he snapped a couple of shots before it continued on its way and made a few rapid sketches to capture the sense of motion. Those brief studies became the seeds for what would become a more dramatic composition.
Composing Motion and Atmosphere
Back in his studio, Demers reimagined the scene, amplifying the drama to suit the boat’s rugged character. He introduced a rocky shore, a shifting sky and a choppy, running sea to convey the tensions of a working day on the coast. The more dynamic setting felt truer to the spirit of the lobster boat — a small, tough vessel enduring the elements as it pursues its daily work. The painting, titled “Running Tide,” presents both the labor of fishing and the coastal environment that frames it.
A Lifelong Relationship with the Sea
Demers has spent his life on and around the water, beginning his years as a crewmember aboard square-riggers and schooners. That experience, combined with a continuing dedication to sailing, informs his art. He watches the sea constantly, studying its moods and mechanics. “I don’t usually use photography as a reference,” he explains, “but I also paint and draw from life. That practice, along with relentless observation, has taught me the anatomy and kinetics of water.”
For Demers, understanding water means appreciating how it behaves under varied conditions — the way wind shapes waves, how currents interact with shoreline contours, and how light reads differently across glassy bays versus choppy channels. This deeper comprehension allows him to portray motion convincingly, giving his seascapes a sense of authenticity and life.
Art That Reflects Human and Natural Symbiosis
“Running Tide” is more than a single moment captured on canvas; it reflects Demers’ broader fascination with the relationship between humans and nature. He has long been inspired by the Maine coast’s “straightforward relationship between humans and nature and the symbiosis inherent in that relationship.” The painting evokes both past and present — the traditional work of small boats carried into contemporary life — and reveals the artist’s desire to be part of that coastal totality through his work.
Demers’ creative process attempts to position him within the place he paints. By observing, sketching and returning to the studio to recompose what he has lived through, he brings viewers into a scene that feels lived-in and immediate. The resulting works are intimate yet cinematic, rooted in direct experience and polished by deliberate studio choices.
Technique and Sensibility
His technique balances on-the-spot spontaneity with considered studio composition. Quick sketches and selective photography capture transient gestures and shapes, while oil paint lets him refine light, color and texture to suggest weather, spray and the worn surfaces of working vessels. He chooses to heighten certain elements — a darker sky, a more restless sea, a rocky foreground — when the mood calls for it, always in service of the narrative and physical truth of the scene.
Viewed together, Demers’ paintings offer both a celebration of coastal life and a study in how environment shapes human endeavor. “Watching the eternal rhythms of wind, water and shore always comfort and compel me to create,” he says, and “Running Tide” stands as a clear example of that impulse: a painting born of observation, quick decision and a deep, lifelong intimacy with the maritime world.
November 2013 issue