Drifting to Anchor

Drifting to Anchor

The ketch in the painting is shown anchoring in St Ives Bay in the evening, awaiting the tide to enter Hayle harbour. Irene is now privately owned and used for charter. During her working life, she would have been in general cargo carrying products such as pit props out of the small Bristol Channel port of Lydney, in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, or bales of wool from the Cotswolds to Cork in Ireland, crewed by a skipper, a mate, and a boy.

In ‘ Coming to Anchor’, the sun is setting over the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The air is still. In the galley, the ship’s cook is preparing the evening meal in the deck galley. Beers are being opened. On the foredeck, the Mate is checking that the anchor is holding fast. The sails are being lowered, and the anchor light is being prepared for hoisting. The scene is timeless. For hundreds of years, such vessels were the lifeblood of coastal sea trade. The ketch is painted in silhouette against the evening sky. The lines of the ship are clean and elegant, and the whole scene is peaceful and serene. Seagulls are roosting. Dolphins are playfully nudging the tared hull. Whales are out in depths beyond the bay as the light fades.

David is a Cornwall-based artist who is inspired by the sea and the shore, and for many years has both sailed in and been the proud owner of a traditional ketch, an 80' Breton crabber, and the 110' brigantine, Phoenix. For his entire life, he has had a close connection with the sea and the seashore. As a teenager, he hitch-hiked to St Ives, bought a fisherman’s smock, and dreamed of being an artist. Dreams come true.