Context Photos and Videos: SS United States Paintings

It's hard to get a perspective for how big the SS United States is. This is a photo of the starboard side of the SS United States as viewed from a riverboat farewell cruise in November 2024. Her departure was delayed more than once due to weather. I’ve labeled the photo to provide context for the locations of my paintings aboard the ship. It was fun to have a different context for how the locations related to the larger structure, since I had only seen them from aboard the ship previously. If you’d like to see the whole series of paintings I’ve made of this ship, here they are.

There are a great many wonderful photos of iconic aspects of the ship’s architecture by photographers far more skilled than myself, so I’ve chosen to focus my more recent paintings on aspects of her that are less well-documented, rendering complex textures in thick oil paint.

1. ) “Secluded Promenade,”

oil on panel, 24” x 18” $1490

This painting is the port side promenade, but the photo shows the mirrored swooping structure on the starboard side.

There is also a 6" x 4" watercolor study of this piece.

2. “Absentee Lifeboats”

   oil on panel, 20” x 16”

   This is a view from one of the upper decks of the SS United States on the starboard side. The bracket to the right of the windbreak doorway used to hold a lifeboat, hence the title. I was enthralled by the geometry of this passage of ship's architecture and the way it interacted with the sky and water. If my understanding of schematics is correct, this is a part of the ship that was only for crew. It is a shame that few people will have the opportunity to see this portion of her, so hopefully this painting will help more people appreciate what I find so striking about her.

   
   

   

“Walking Arch,”

Oil on panel, 30” x 20

For comparison, Here’s a photo from the SS United States Conservancy’s webpage about what the space looked like in its glory days.

I uploaded a short video to YouTube explaining the creative choices I made when making this painting of the observation lounge.

"SSUS Windbreak," oil on panel 20" x 16"

Here is a video describing the architectural design features of this painting's subject.

This is the port side, midship looking towards the bow on a sunny day in July, 2023.

Perhaps you can recognize elements of the following paintings:

"SSUS Portholes 1," oil on panel 20" x 16"

"SSUS Port Bow Curve 2," oil on panel, 24" x 24"

This is a disorienting place, right?

"I'm not sure how I got here, but it sure is pretty." Oil on panel, 20" x 16"

This is the sports deck. In the painting, we're standing on the platform to the right looking down the stairs. That raised area had a tennis court! There used to be aluminum railing around it. I believe that the housing hosts the electrician's shop and an emergency diesel generator. If you look closely, there's a spray-painted warning inside of the darkened doorway that reads "NO RAILING AT ALL." That is true of several areas of the ship. When she was towed to Turkey and Ukraine to have her asbestos removed, the aluminum railings on some of the upper deck areas were sold for scrap.

This screw (propeller), one of four, was resting on the deck at the stern of the ship.

"SSUS Screw," watercolor on paper, 6" x 4"

That screw is flippin' huge. You can see it at the center of this photo on top of the deck. Note the swooping curved architecture from the earlier painting.

I plan to add more to this post later.