One reason Dance spends time on the Eastern Shore is to gather reference on the boats that are in the area. This may be just an excuse to sail his 17-foot Thistle, but his thorough, accurate renderings leave no room for doubting his true intentions. He works up a painting using a combination of on-site drawings, photographs, and his trained eye. These bits of information are pieced together to depict a given boat accurately. From experience he knows this is necessary.
Dance points out that.
A photograph is never perfect. There is always something that's not quite right. Something that's just not working. He often turns an object slightly, or moves it to an entirely different spot in the picture. Ira Hudson Goose, alkyd.