In the beginning…..
Every painter evolves. Often we don’t see the early work, the experiments that, perhaps, didn’t quite pay off.
In this section I will be adding a few ramblings, and as I dig them out and generally stumble upon them, a few earlier works. Unfortunately for me, perhaps not for you :-), much of my early efforts were either given away, or, as on one nasty occasion, stolen. I do have a few left, and one of these is the framed oil featuring HMS Victory laying off The Isle of Wight that is featured on this page.
In the tradition of many painters back through the ages, I was inspired to paint this picture having viewed the original master work. I, unfortunately, wasn’t in a position to sit for hours in front of the work itself.
I painted this around 37 years ago. I was only able to glimpse it for a few moments on a school trip to see the Victory herself in Portsmouth. I simply had to try and remember what I could and used the tiny little image on a brochure I had for reference. I concentrated on the Victory and Jolly-boat for my composition as I could not retain the enormous detail of the original. I wanted to try and capture the feeling of ‘weight’, the sheer presence of the Victory herself. Having composed my boats, I then invented a spit of land to balance the painting.
Off The Isle Of White
What I captured, I hoped back then, was that feeling of calm, of light, of presence. At 14 or 15 years of age, the painting was really my very first foray into the joys of oil on canvas.
If you would like to view the inspiration for this picture just follow the link HERE
The original work was by John Wilson Carmichael. The title of the piece is ‘HMS ‘Victory’ Anchored off the Isle of Wight’. It was painted in 1847.
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