The Accidental Artist

Winter Sunset

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Jacobson) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 12:45:00 +0000

Winter Sunset

Oil on canvas, 10x10, $100

sold

I have realized that one of the things that I like best about painting is that it is something I do with my hands. Something I make with my hands.

I remembered my delight, when I worked in newspapers, at finding out that in most states, newspapers are categorized as manufacturers. (This was 25 years ago and might have changed since, but at the time, it was true). I loved that, and it made sense to me. I always appreciated the workmanship of a well-designed page, a well-written story, a well-crafted headline.

And painting, for me, is much the same. By and large, it is not a magical experience, spirit floating on the wind, etc. It is a physical effort. It is work. It is a muscle that grows stronger with use - so that when that magical experience does come along, when that spirit flashes across my path, I will have the vision to see it and the strength and ability to capture it.

On the Reservoir After the Snow

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Jacobson) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:51:00 +0000

On the Reservoir After the Snow

Oil on canvas, 12x48

Please contact me for price and delivery

The snow comes in quiet and soft this time, a whisper of a storm dancing in overnight, touching the tips of the trees, barely covering the winter-hard earth, marking the branches with a delicate line.

In the morning, the wind puffs up cold and hard, and chases the storm away. I find myself at the edge of the reservoir, reveling in the gorgeous, clear light that follows the snow.

My canvas is large and awkward, a sail in the wind, and it's far too cold to use my clamp system. So I tape the canvas to the easel, hang my bag from the easel's legs, and set to painting.

Before I'm finished, I'm too cold to go on, but I know where I am going with the painting, and I pack it up to finish at home.

I love the way the light spills over the near trees at the left-hand edge, and the way the sky moves from white to blue. I love the brave, scrawny trees that grow along the reservoir's edge, and the way the snow dusts it all.

The rest of the day, I'm cold, chilled to the bone by my hours in the wind. But it's a good feeling, and I'd do it again, any day, to make a painting like this one.

Sitting Pretty

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Jacobson) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 14:03:00 +0000

Sitting Pretty

Oil on canvas, 24x28

Please contact me for price and shipping info

For the first time in ages - since my vacation at the end of October, really - I had nearly a whole day with virtually nothing required of me.

It was snowing like blazes, and was quiet and pretty outside. And yes, it was cold inside. Even though there's heat in the studio, it's usually chilly up there in the winter. I'd painted outside, though, a day earlier, and found myself chilled absolutely to the bone... So, everything is relative. (That painting, of the reservoir early in the morning, as Friday's snowstorm was lifting, is a real beauty. I'll be posting it soon!)

I've been having great fun expanding my range of animal subjects. I will have the window at Center Framing and Art in West Hartford Center in the middle of February, and I hope to have a variety of animals on display there, along with sunflowers and rainbow sunflowers, too!

Hope you are all cozy and warm on this brisk winter's day!

Rainbow Sunflowers

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Jacobson) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 14:54:00 +0000

Rainbow Sunflowers

Oil on canvas, 10x10, $100

I like the way this painting came out, though I admit I am a little uncertain about the background. I think it works, but I like the flowers themselves so much more. I think that the next one I do, I will fill the entire canvas with flowers, see if I can make that work.

So the article I mentioned recently about ME is now out, on line! Very cool! Here at the world headquarters of Jacobson Arts, I am FAMOUS. I hope that other artists will use my gizmos to help them paint bigger paintings outdoors.

Thank you, all who read this, for all the support and encouragement that you give me every day, and which some of you have given me for years. I couldn't do this without you, and I hope you know how much I appreciate your reading, commenting on and buying my paintings!

Longhorn

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Jacobson) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 20:33:00 +0000

Longhorn

Oil on canvas, 30x36

Please email me for price and delivery options

I don't usually paint backgrounds with my animals, but this is the second in a row. My friend Heather wrote, after I posted my recent frog painting, that while she liked the painting, she preferred the backgrounds that are just solid colors, like on Pugster!

At any rate, I have this painting hanging in my bedroom office here, and it's really pretty captivating. There's a lot of paint on this one!

Sunflower Details

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Jacobson) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 20:36:00 +0000

Detail No. 1

Detail No. 2

Detail No. 3

Yes, I do have actual paintings that I have finished, and which I could be putting up on this blog, and they're good paintings - but I'm so excited about this in-progress piece that I wanted to put it up and share it!

I was making a 10x10 sunflower painting, an idea suggested by an artist friend of mine at the gallery show on Saturday, when I began fooling around with overlaying these marbled paint strokes, as petals.

From a distance, the painting is pretty cool. It looks like an interesting, slightly oddly colored sunflower painting.

But up close, isn't it wonderful? It is scary as hell to do this, because there's no going back. Well, I guess there it. I guess I could scrape the paint off and start again in an area. But the real beauty of it, or what felt like the real beauty, as it was unfolding for me, is the random swirls of marbling, and the accidental picking up of contiguous colors.

So, a finished painting tomorrow, but in the meantime, please tell me if you all think this is as cool as I think it is!

Boat Launch Ramp, Old Lyme (10x10)

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Jacobson) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:11:00 +0000

Boat Launch Ramp, Old Lyme

Oil on canvas, 10x10, $100

The represented artists' show at the Wallkill River School Gallery on Saturday was hot, chaotic, crowded - and fun! It is always a pleasure to meet new people, and especially new people interested in art... and it was just so great to see my old friends, artists and nonartists alike.

Before the show even began, a woman came up to me and told me that she remembered "The Christmas Surprise," one of the fictional serials I wrote for the Times Herald-Record. That conversation made my day.

And then the artists came in, and began setting up, and I tell you, it felt like going home to my adopted family.

There was Shawn Dell Joyce, with whom I'm showing in April, and who I called before I made my first painting, when I realized I had no idea how to do a background.

There was Bruce Thorne, the first person I ever saw painting with a palette knife, and there was his wife, Lita Thorne, who showed me how to push limits and be unafraid to make my own paintings.

Here's my painting in the landscape

There was George Hayes, with whom I had my first show, and Nancy Reed Jones, with whom I had one of my best painting days ever. There was kindred spirit and animal lover Lisa O'Gorman, and the ever so talented Mary Muegle Sealfon and Janet Campbell, and scores of others who shared their secrets and their inspiration with me, and helped me begin to learn how to paint.

So yes, it was too hot, and too crowded, and too nuts for words, but it was great fun, and greatly reassuring, too. I am so proud to be included as one of the represented artists in the gallery. I am in such excellent company.

Edge of the Sound, Madison

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Jacobson) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 14:46:00 +0000

Edge of the Sound, Madison

Oil on canvas, 10x10, $100

I hoped I would have the chance to paint on New Year's Day, but work took over, and so what has become a tradition got pushed off for 24 hours. Even though I was working on the Monday holiday, there was not much to do, so I had the chance to scour Madison and Clinton in the afternoon and paint, on a day of wind and sun and high wintry clouds.

It was the kind of day that made me happy to have a big hat and a warm coat and a van to get into to thaw out. And the kind of day that made me happy to be alive.

If any of you are in the mid-Hudson Valley in New York, why don't you come to the Wallkill River School Gallery on Saturday? I'm part of a group show of represented painters, and will be demonstrating during the opening, along with everyone else.

It's a little chaotic, but it's a lot of fun, and it gives people the chance to see work by everyone who exhibits at the gallery throughout the year.

The gallery is at 232 Ward St., (which is also Route 17K) in Montgomery. The show is Saturday, from 5-7 p.m.

And in April, Shawn Dell Joyce and I will be doing a two-person show, "Dreaming in Color," at the gallery - so plan on coming!

Rodanthe Revisited

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Jacobson) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 14:56:00 +0000

Rodanthe Revisited

Oil on canvas, 10x10, sold

Look familiar? My friend Bonnie got in on the 10x10 action just when I was starting the project, and when she saw the original Rodanthe 10-inch by 10-inch painting, wrote to tell me how much she loved it.

Or how much she would love it, if the sky were blue.

I took it as a challenge, and approached the painting a second time, this time thinking of the clear blue skies I saw while I was down in North Carolina.

She loves it - and so do I. And it was fun to rethink the painting, too.

Hope you all had an excellent new year!

Pugster!

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Jacobson) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 23:28:00 +0000

Pugster!

Oil on canvas, 12x12

Please contact me for price and delivery options

How can you not love a pug? Those eyes, those ears, that snorting... We have a pug granddaughter, along with the regular human grandchildren, and while this is not her, it has some of her expression, for sure.

***

Turns out that my recent painting of the turtle is not sold - long story - so if anyone is interested in him, please let me know. In the meantime, I have another frog to paint, and oh yes, there are landscapes, too.

***

Those of you who receive my blog by email... would you please go to the real site - click here to reach it - The Accidental Artist - and let me know:

a. if you can see the whole flipcard thing and
b. what you think of it?

Thanks!

***

This week between Christmas and New Year's has been relaxed and easy and fun for me. I have read, I have cooked, I have shopped - all pursuits that have been pretty much nonexistent in my life these past 16 months or so.

I didn't realize how much I had missed them.

Frog

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Jacobson) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 23:53:00 +0000

Frog

Oil on canvas, 30x40

Please contact me for price and shipping/delivery info

I went out today, my first venture into the commercial world since a few days before Christmas. As I drove up to Stop & Shop, I thought, "Yay, there'll be no irritating Salvation Army person there, asking for money, no crowds of shoppers, no annoying Christmas music and pointless decorations, whew."

And then, as I walked up to the store, I realized that I really missed all that stuff. I missed the cheery Salvation Army bells, and the energetic woman who dances wildly at the Groton Stop & Shop. I missed putting my dollar in the pot and feeling helpful. I missed the sappy Christmas songs that I hum along with, or whistle to, or even sing aloud. I missed the bright Christmas decorations, and the people with their stuffed carts and their happy plans and their hopes of joy and peace.

For a crazy moment, I thought - Maybe we should have Christmas all year round, or at least all winter.

Nah. It's better to miss it. Just a little.

***

So... what do you think of the frog?

Christmas Day

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Jacobson) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 19:14:00 +0000

Christmas Day

Oil on canvas, 16x20

Please contact me for price and shipping information

As I guess you can see, I spent some time Christmas morning fooling around with the blog. What do you think?

What I like is that you can see so many paintings at one time, and flip through them so easily - I have it set on the "flipcard" option. I think you can set your own view on a variety of different options, is that right?

At any rate, I'd love any feedback. At first, I really wasn't sure about the change, but it is growing on me.

In the meantime, I do love this painting. It feels like Christmas to me, the kind of Christmas I hold in my heart. No Christmas is really like this for me, not since my mother died, but this kind of Christmas, the kind in the painting, lives in all these other Christmases, and in all my family members, and in all my memories and all my hopes.

Merry Christmas to You!

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Jacobson) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 11:03:00 +0000

Rufus

Oil on canvas, 12x12, commission

Christmas morning, and the house is quiet. Peter's asleep, with two dogs by his side. Sam, the big Samoyed, is sleeping by my feet and Eunice the cat is curled up in the warmth of my desk lamp.

It's not quite 6 a.m., and it is dark still. But I trust and I believe that soon, the edge of the sky will lighten and the sun will come up on another day, this Christmas Day, a day to celebrate love and peace and family and the birth of Jesus.

Hope and fear, courage and frustration, optimism and exhaustion, these have been my companions this year. I've reached highs I never imagined I'd see, and felt lost in ways I've never felt before.

In the end, this has been more than anything a year of faith - in myself, in the path I'm walking, in the guidance of a higher power, in a future that holds great change and great promise.

Thank you, all of you, for your constant support of me, of my paintings, of my toddling steps forward. Thank you for your comments, your words, your purchases, your inspiration.

Art has shown me more clearly than anything how connected we all are, and how our words, our gestures, our decisions touch the people around us.

Merry Christmas, friends! I hope that you find joy and peace today, safe in the heart of your families, and that the feelings of this day stay with you always.

Turtle

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Jacobson) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 14:42:00 +0000

Turtle

Oil on canvas, 18x24

sold

Yes, my first turtle! And yes, it is sold. Sold before it was finished. Sold when it was barely begun. Of course, the would-be buyer hasn't seen it yet, so there's always a chance it will slowly turtle its way back to me, but far as I am concerned, it's sold.

I am pretty excited about this painting, as it is a step in a new direction for me. I'm going to try some water-related animal paintings, a different turtle, maybe a frog, some fish. The colors interest me, and the creatures are a new challenge. And I love a new challenge.

Now that I am recovered from the flu, I'm heading back to my 100x100 project, speaking of challenges. Some of the paintings sold for Christmas presents, and that makes me happy!

And speaking of happy, I have my first 2012 commission! It is of a scene to be painted in August, so it's not imminent, but I am pretty darn pleased to have a commission before the year even begins.

Ho ho ho indeed.

Sunset on the Salt Marsh

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Jacobson) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 21:56:00 +0000

Sunset on the Salt Marsh

Oil on canvas, 30x30

Please contact me for price and delivery options

I have been flat on my back with the flu for pretty much the entire week, and I can tell you, it stinks.

It's not great to be away from work, no matter how much I complain about my work.

It's not great to have a break from painting, no matter how fixated I am.

It's not great to watch TV all day, even though on some of the brain-busting 19-hour days I have, I think, "How nice it would be just to watch TV all day."

And it is not great to have an excuse not to finish my Christmas shopping/making.

Boo hoo, poor me.

People around me seem convinced that I will live, and I am trying to believe them. If I don't, those of you who have paintings of mine will find yourselves in the money, soon, I am sure.

I'm kidding, of course. I am going to live. I'm just going to draw everyone else into my misery until I feel better.

****

On an entirely different note, whether I expire or survive (I am assuming), I will be featured soon in Plein Air magazine!

Editor Steve Doherty is doing a piece on extreme plein-air painters, and launched it in his newsletter. I saw it, and wrote to tell him about my clamp system. He's into it, so I sent him some photos and explained it, and if all goes well, there will be a short piece about me! With some of my paintings!

Jojo

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Jacobson) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 21:40:00 +0000

Jojo

Oil on canvas, 12x12

Really, Jojo is the funniest dog in the world. She is my dog, or I am her person, or some combination of all that.

I saw her picture in the paper, in the Shelter Tails feature that showcased animals who needed to be adopted, and I just fell for her. "Crystal" was the name they'd given her, and believe me, this is no "Crystal."

By our best guesses, she is border collie, pit bull, and who knows what else - and she is just as funny and as loving as a dog can be. The expression that I got in this painting, that worried and yet direct expression, that's her to a T.

Jojo crashes down onto my side every night, and sleeps pressed hard against me. She is within reach of me every moment she can possibly be. She is a comfort, an amusement, a source of joy, and an annoyance, all rolled up into one.

I don't know how I'd get through these days without her - and I venture that if she could talk, she'd say the same about me.

***

On another note entirely, I got a great boost last week when a lovely woman, Joanna Stenning, mentioned me in her blog - and not only that, said that my palette knife work inspired her to try the same.

She and her parents bought paintings from me at a Paradise City show - and I was just delighted to be mentioned.

Her work is lovely, her blog is really fun - so stop by and check her out!

Fog on the Reservoir

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Jacobson) — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 11:01:00 +0000

Fog on the Reservoir

Oil on canvas, 10x10, $100

This interestingly warm November has made for some spectacular mornings! Cool air meets warm water, and fog is the result.

I've been busy with work, with house stuff, with yard stuff, with family stuff, and my painting schedule has taken a little beating. But when I have the chance, it feels like a gift, and so I am going with the flow, and not upbraiding myself for my lower production.

Yesterday, I painted with the remarkably talented and very fun Ronet Noe, outside Center Framing & Art. Ronet brought reindeer antler headbands for us both, and silvery garland. She wore a belt of jingle bells, and I brought an ipod full of Christmas carols, and we talked and laughed and painted and had a great time!

It does not look like winter, it does not feel like Christmas, we do not have a tree (we do have our palm tree and flamingo, which is our regular Christmas tree, but we haven't put it up yet) - but I am feeling more like Christmas than I have in years. And it feels good.

When you're thinking of presents, please think of giving a painting - one of mine, one of someone else's - if you can give a gift of local art, how fabulous would that be?

If you'd like to check out my 10x10s, each of which is $100 plus shipping, click here!

Steer

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Jacobson) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 23:46:00 +0000

Steer

Oil on canvas, 16x20

Interested? Email me for price and delivery/shipping info

Man, have I been busy! I guess we all have, between Thanksgiving, and Christmas shopping, and work, and raking, and house-cleaning and yard sales, and all the other million things going on - whew!

I have had some time to paint, but not much time to take good photos or do blog postings. But this evening, I can snatch a few moments.

I am just loving this steer - and have a question for you all. Those of you who've been reading this blog for a while know that I am often tempted to leave big swatches of canvas blank - and sometimes, I actually go through with it.

What about this steer? Would you like to see a nice bright background? Or are you liking the blank canvas around his face? I'd love to know.

***

And now for a bit of self-promotion!

On this so-called Cyber Monday, I'd like to ask you to consider buying art - from me, or from another local artist - to give for Christmas! My 10-inch by 10-inch series, "Passages," offers really quite lovely and interesting landscapes for $100 - why not check them out? You can see them all by clicking here.

And if you want to just look around the website (I've redesigned it recently), you can do so by going to jacobson-arts.com!

You can pay by check, cash, credit card or PayPal - and there's still time to pay over time, and have the piece by Christmas or Hanukkah.

And really, while I am asking you to consider buying a piece from me, I am mostly asking you to consider buying a piece of art by any local artist. There are shows of local art, appropriate for the holidays, at the Lighthouse Gallery in Groton, at the Wallkill River School Gallery in Montgomery, NY, at Hygienic in New London - and in many, many more places!

Art makes a great present, and buying a piece from a local artist is a wonderful thing to do on so many levels.

Thanks for considering it!

Clinton Marsh Revisited

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Jacobson) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 11:57:00 +0000

Clinton Marsh Revisited

Oil on canvas, 24x48
Please contact me for price and shipping/delivery information

After all these years writing this blog, you might think I have a good idea what I'm doing. Most days, I think you'd be right.

But yesterday, I uploaded the photo, thought about changing it, hit a button, wondered - hmm... - then got interrupted before that "hmmm" turned into a whole thought - and I was off and running on my 4:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Patch day - and thoughts of my blog never returned until this morning, when I opened my email and saw notes from eight of you...

Ah well, 'tis the season, eh? The season of forgetting, of making lists and losing them, of setting out with the best of intentions and the worst of directions, and ending up someplace you never thought you'd be when you got up this morning.

This painting has been sitting on my easel for weeks, unusual for me, as I've snatched time from the rest of my life to finish a portion here, a portion there, and finally, it is done, and I love it. Absolutely love it. Yes, it's different from my regular colors, but it is still bright, bright enough, with that soft bright light that you get off the water on an overcast day. I'm really pretty happy with it.

***

In other news, I sold the Miata on Sunday. Yeah, I know. Many of you remember when I bought the little car, and how much fun I have had in it. But it needs stuff. It needs a new roof, it needs a new driver's seat, it needs a new paint job. The motor is fine - great, really - but the rest is beyond me and my means right now - so when a nice, nice man at our yard sale asked it if was for sale, I gulped and said yes.

I cried as I drove, with the top down, to deliver it. Cried because I loved my little car, loved driving it in impossibly cold and impossibly hot days. Loved driving it back and forth from New York to New London when my mother was dying. Loved driving her around in it, and hearing her laugh as the wind blew on her chemo-hairless head. Loved driving it out into the countryside, zipping around the curves, pulling into teeny parking places - and feeling young and reckless and like a girl who would have a convertible.

I cried, also, I know, because I don't want to think of myself as a girl who wouldn't have a convertible.

And so, I will not. I am still a girl who would have a convertible, even though I am now a girl who has a minivan.

Autumn in Old Mystic

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Jacobson) — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 14:33:00 +0000

Autumn in Old Mystic

Oil on canvas, 10x10, $100

Red Afternoon

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Jacobson) — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 12:49:00 +0000

Red Afternoon

Oil on canvas, 10x10, $100

The colors might not have that stupendous, overwhelming blaze of color that they have had in other years, but where you find them this year, they are spectacular. The reds and yellows are particularly brilliant - and the graying, mostly bare trees around the red and yellow bushes make the colors stand out even more.

I've put all the 10x10 paintings I've made so far on their own page on the jacobson arts website. The page is still a little bit under construction, but all of you who read this blog are invited to take a look before it's finished. It's fun to see them all together!

Only some of the Outer Banks paintings are up on the site, and I have just realized that I don't have photos of all of them. They're all at Center Framing and Art, 56 LaSalle Road, West Hartford Center, if anyone lives nearby and wants to take a look.

Outside Rodanthe

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Jacobson) — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 11:06:00 +0000

Outside Rodanthe

Oil on canvas, 10x10, $100

Today is Election Day, and I am moved, as I always am, by having the chance to participate, to vote. I do know how geeky this is, but I can't help it. Democracy resonates with me, and as I vote, I think of the line of people who have come before me, over the centuries, to vote, to fight for voting, to die for the right and the principles behind it.

I confess that more than once, the act of voting has brought tears to my eyes.

I have spent the time since I've been home finishing the edges of the paintings I made on my trip, fixing smears and spots that were marred in transition. Nothing major happened, but at the end of a trip, nearly every painting needs something.

The work brings me back to these open skies, and grass-covered dunes, and the sense of standing on the edge of something unseen and exciting. I love that my paintings make that fresh again.

Oyster, VA

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Jacobson) — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 12:59:00 +0000

Oyster, VA

Oil on canvas, 10x10, $100

Yes, I know, I've gone from Oyster Inlet, NC, to Oyster, VA. Pearls, both!

The day I painted this, it was violently windy, windy enough to defeat my stick-on-the-car apparatus not once but twice! (I think the art gods were punishing me for being cocky about it, actually).

So on this windy day, I decided to explore, and ended up in a place called Oyster. The road ended pretty much where I was standing.

This painting is an experiment. I wanted to do something fast, and abstract (I guess it is a little abstract), and I wanted to try mixing the paint with wax. So I did all that. In contrast to the shine that many of my paintings have, the wax surface, which is very high, has a dull, matte finish. At first I didn't like it, but the more I look at it, the more appealing it is becoming.

I couldn't find anything that told me how many people live in Oyster, but it is 3 feet above sea level, a fact I find amusing.

The world headquarters of Jacobson Arts is in Gales Ferry, CT

Oyster Inlet

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Jacobson) — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 22:38:00 +0000

Oyster Inlet, NC

Oil on canvas, 10x10, $100

Knott's Island

noreply@blogger.com (Carrie Jacobson) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 22:09:00 +0000

Knott's Island

Oil on canvas, 16x20

Please contact me for price and shipping information

I found myself enchanted by the ferry boats in the regions of North Carolina I visited on my painting trip. The very best was the ferry from Cape Hatteras to Ocracoke Island. It took about 45 minutes, and had a relatively circuitous route, through what I imagine were rocks and shoals and who knows what else under the surface.

A few pelicans flew by, and a cloud of seagulls followed, and while I am pretty sure they were there because the ferry's engines were stirring up good stuff to eat, I never saw one of them dive or grab anything from the water.

The ferry from Currituck to Knott's Island was not as long a trip, or as interesting a one, but it was still fun. A school bus full of kids pulled up onto the ferry beside me; the trip was part of their daily commute. Can you imagine going to school on a ferry?