Christmas Open Studio Sale on 7th December 10 - 5 - I Saw Three Ships

Another  opportunity to visit my studio before Christmas will be on Sunday 7th December from 10 - 5 and I will have a variety of Christmas cards on sale, as well as prints and original work both framed and unframed.

The title of my Christmas exhibition is I Saw Three Ships to tie in with the well known carol but it also has a very personal link.

The first stamp collages I made were the three ships featured in the poem Cargoes by John Masefield, the Quinquiremen, the Stately Spanish Galleon and the Dirty British Coaster.   I have prints available of all these three  but for sentimental reasons will never part with the originals!   Ships seem to have become a recurring theme for my stamp collage work over the years and I've produced quite a few!

Inspired by visits to the banks of the River Severn at Purton - known as the Ships' Graveyard, I made The Dispatch and the Severn Trow Norah, just two of the many ships' hulks now resting there. It's a great place to visit.  Britain's last remaining coastal steamer, the S S Robin, now restored and shortly to be opened a s museum and ehibition centre in the Royal London dock was another subject for a stamp collage, and recently I've also made my version of the S S Great Britain. Two clipper ships, the Sower (La Semeuse) and The Blue Lady have been named for the French stamps used in their sails .. there is a whole collecting area dedicated to this little definitive stamp and a book has also been written about it.

"I Saw Three Ships" is a Christmas Carol and each year I make a Christmas card to send to friends and  family. These have included an angel, a Christmas tree, a Christmas wreath, a robin and a dove of peace, and Saint Nicholas, whose own story as Saint Nicholas of Myra, a town in Turkey, included his performing several miracles, one of which featured using the wheat cargoes of three ships to save the starving people of the town.  

earth.water.wind.sky exhibition from 4th May 2012

The Old Passage Inn, at Arlingham in Gloucestershire is once again hosting the Walking the Land artists' exhibition, with the theme  earth.water.wind.sky.    Each work incorporates one of these words in the title.
The work will be displayed throughout the restaurant in its beautiful setting on the banks of the River Severn at Arlingham.

I'm exhibiting my stamp collage picture which shows the Dispatch, a sailing ship which once sailed the high seas as far as Newfoundland but is now in the ships graveyard nearby at Purton, just a few miles along the banks of the River Severn from Arlingham.  The title of my piece is "to the lonely sea and the sky", taken from the poem by John Masefiled, whose poem Sea Fever is another of my favourites. 

 This  framed original picture will be for sale at the Old Passage  and prints  and cards will also be available at my own studio during the Open Studios week-ends on 12/13/19/20 May from 10.30 to 18.00.

The exhibition opens on Friday 4th May and will be on show until 31st May.  Opening hours for the Old Passage Inn are from 11.00 - 16.30 and 18.30 -21.30 daily except Sundays when it closes at 15.00 and is closed all day on  Mondays.





Also check out the Walking the Land website http://www.walkingtheland.org.uk/

to the lonely sea and the sky - The Dispatch

Finally completed my stamp collage of the Dispatch, a two masted schooner which has ended her days on the banks of the River Severn, at Purton Ships' Graveyard. Built in Scotland in 1888, this beautiful old ship had a long history of voyages as far as Newfoundland for cod fishing, before being beached in 1961. Not much remains now as the ship has been burnt, vandalised and pilfered over the years but is now protected by the association formed to conserve the remains of the ships at Purton.

This framed picture will be exhibited at The Old Passage Inn at Arlingham in May 2012 as part of the Walking the Land Exhibition. Prints and cards will also be available from my studio which is detailed in the Site 12 Open Studios brochure Route 04 and will also shortly be on line.

" to the lonely sea and the sky" seemed an appropriate title for this tall ship, the quotation taken from John Masefield's poem, Sea Fever.

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,

and all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by".

The Dispatch - Purton Ships' Graveyard

Sketch

Name Plate

My first visit to Purton was over three years ago when I went there with my daughter, currently in her final year of a Photography Degree. She had been told about the Purton Hulks and thought it would be an interesting place to go and take some photographs. We've returned there together and separately several times since then and I've also taken photos and made sketches of some of the remains of the ships and boats that are on the banks of the Severn.

The Dispatch fired my imagination, and having made a sketch recently I then managed to follow this up with some research on how this ship originally looked.

I'm currently working on a stamp collage of the Dispatch in full sail and will post this shortly. In the meantime more details about this magnificent Schooner built in 1888 can be found on the website http://www.friendsofpurton.org.uk/ which also has information about the other vessels in the Ships' graveyard.