Acrylic on canvas, 16 x 12"

This fishing boats painting is on a stretched canvas, painted round the sides, with a string on the back, so it is ready to hang as it is, or can be framed if you prefer.

We have visited Coverack in Cornwall a few times and I have always found it beautiful. It is unspoilt and the traditional fishing industry is still going on, since it started in the 18th century. It feels like a privilege to see the boats, and people working as I wonder how long it will carry on with factors like overfishing, fishing quotas and competition from larger scale industrial trawling. This is one of the reasons I like to paint the boats, as a record of history. You can read more about overfishing on the Stewardship Council website.

The boats and buoys are also a very attractive art subject, with their interesting shapes and bright colours.

It was a challenge to get the shapes of the boats right so I started off by drawing them on paper, then transferred the drawing onto the canvas. I also spent a long time painting the water, trying to portray the lovely shimmering light reflections.

If you would like to see the painting process I have uploaded a video to YouTube

I often paint in a traditional representational style and I feel this suits the traditional subject of this painting. The scene was so beautiful that I didn't feel it needed much extra visual interpretation. I wanted the painting to look as close to the way it looked to me when I was there.