Sea Paintings Exhibition

Sea Paintings

At The Viewing Room

Thames-Side Studios

Harrington Way, Warspite Rd, 

London SE18 5NR

9 Nov – 20 Dec 2024

The Preview is Friday 8 November, 6-9pm. 

These sea paintings come out of the memories I have from sailing on and off for thirty years. My wife Margy and I sailed a boat from the east coast of the UK to Kusadasi in Turkey, a discontinuous trip made over a period of several years, we also made numerous trips around the UK coast and across to France and the Netherlands. The many hours spent standing at the helm looking at calm waters and still skies as well as dramatically strong winds and menacing waves has been etched on my psyche. A number of these paintings capture the last few hours of a sailing trip, when the navigation will take the vessel close to a headland, before turning towards a safe harbour. It is this situation of sailing round a headland, where the waves kick up, the wind changes direction, the current becomes confused, there maybe changes to the depth of the sea at these places, rocks to avoid that adds a feeling of danger. Other Painting are about the memories of being out of sight of land sailing overnight with gale force winds, leaving a harbour, or crossing the English Channel in dense fog with no radar. This series of paintings has also been inspired by the works of great sea painters, J.M.W. Turner, Winslow Homer, Andreas Achenbach and Willem van de Velde the Younger. Each painting is about a particular place:- The Cliffs at Tropea - Calabria, The Raz de Sein - Brittany, San Vito Lo Capo - Sicily, they are places that remind me of a particular event, a thunderstorm, the boat engine not starting, close encounters with large ships at night, a fore sail getting tangled whilst arriving in harbour or a fast sail with a good wind.