'Windswept'

A few years ago our National Gallery hosted an exhibition 'Paintings from Poland'. Among the majority of work on show that could not fail to impress and inspire was a large painting of a galleon cutting through the ocean:

< Ferdynand Ruszczyc's masterpiece 'Nec Mergitur' (1904-1905)

In the days following my first visit to this exhibition I decided to paint a similar theme, keeping within the boundaries of my own style of painting.

Nederland's Scheepvaart Museum >

I worked from a bunch of drawings which I made at the Maritime Museum in Amsterdam, a warehouse that is three centuries old, housing one of the world's most important maritime collections. It was full to the brim with scaled down replicas and models of Galleons, Schooners, Sloops, etc.

Began with charcoal, sketching loosely the ship, surf and sky until happy with the composition then set the Canvas aside for another day.

I later returned to same applying my first layers of paint, weaving patterns around the outline of the galleon.

Once I had started I couldn't stop working from early dawn through 'till late that evening.

After a nights rest I began adding detail, finishing up with the rigging and some final adjustments.

'Galleon' Sold