As a marine artist experience has taught me that historical maritime paintings require a special approach. My personal objective is to create in visual terms a narrative which is convincing, interesting and dramatic.

Accurate details of ships are sourced from national maritime collections in the form of models and draughts or the Public Records Office for ships logs, although reports of events may vary in accuracy, eye witness accounts are revealing, often telling a story at variance with the official narrative.

Marine artists in the present day are fortunate in having much more information archived and accessible. My task as an artist is to incorporate and interpret this information into a credible image that tells a story.

Preliminary sketch

Drawing transferred to canvas with monochrome tonal wash

Detail drawing

Preparatory Sketches

I consider it important to my method that I transfer the image in oil paint from the beginning in both line and tone, blocking in basic forms to establish the tonal range in monochrome, progressively adding as much detail as will allow the painting to maintain its own dynamism as it progresses.