01 Painting - Marine Art, John (Jack) Robert Charles Spurling's Loch Etive. With Footnotes, #318

John (Jack) Robert Charles Spurling, British, 1870-1933

Ship "Loch Etive",  c. 1925

Gouache on board

15 x 21 inches (38 x 53.3 cm)

Private collection

The Loch Etive was a British iron full-rigged clipper ship built in Glasgow in 1877. The novelist, Joseph Conrad served as her third mate and referred to her in his novel "Mirror of the Seas": "The ship was one of those iron wood clippers that the Clyde had floated out in swarms upon the world during the seventh decade of the last century. It was a fine period in shipbuilding and also, I might say, a period of overmasting. The spars rigged up on the narrow hulls were indeed tall then, and the ship of which I think, with her colored-glass skylight-ends bearing the motto, 'Let Glasgow Flourish,' was certainly one of the most heavily-sparred specimens. She was built for hard driving, and unquestionably she got all the driving she could stand." More on Loch Etive

John (Jack) Robert Charles Spurling (1870 – 31 May 1933) was an English painter noted for nautical themes, particularly sailing ships of the 19th and 20th centuries.

John Robert Charles "Jack" Spurling was the son of an importer and grew up near the London docks, where he learned to sketch as a pastime. At the age of 16 he first went to sea as an apprentice aboard Astoria. His life nearly ended when he fell from the main upper topsail yard to the deck, he instead spent six months in a Singapore hospital. He gained his second mate's certificate after some years aboard one of Devitt & Moore's sail training vessels, and around the same time learned the art of watercolor painting, and was soon receiving commissions from other seafarers. He finished his life at sea as a sailor with the Blue Anchor line of steamers.

Spurling's second love was the stage, and promising career as an actor but success as a painter intruded: In 1921 he met Frederick Arthur Hook (died 1935), editor of The Blue Peter: The Magazine of Sea Travel, Price 1/-,[2] a magazine for sailing enthusiasts. Hook purchased much of Spurling's portfolio of work, and contracted him to supply artwork for the covers of his magazine, the first being the issue of March 1923. More on John (Jack) Robert Charles Spurling

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01 Photograph - Marine Art, Edward Burtynsky's Shipyard #1, with Footnotes, #317

Edward Burtynsky

Shipyard #1, Qili Port, Zhejiang Province, China, 2004

Chromogenic print.

40 7/10 × 79 1/2 in, 103.5 × 201.9 cm

Private collection

Edward Burtynsky (born February 22, 1955) is a Canadian photographer and artist known for his large format photographs of industrial landscapes.

Burtynsky was born in St. Catharines, Ontario. When he was 11, his father purchased a darkroom, including cameras and instruction manuals. With his father, Burtynsky learned how to make black and white prints and together with his older sister established a small business taking portraits. In the early 1970s, Burtynsky found work in printing and he started night classes in photography, later enrolling at the Ryerson Polytechnical Institute.

From the mid-1970s to early 1980s, Burtynsky formally studied graphic arts and photography. He obtained a diploma in graphic arts from Niagara College in Welland, Ontario, in 1976, and a BAA in Photographic Arts from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute in Toronto, Ontario, in 1982.

Most of Burtynsky's exhibited photography was taken with a large format, field camera, on large 4×5-inch sheet film. Burtynsky's most famous photographs are sweeping views of landscapes altered by industry: mine tailings, quarries, scrap piles. He has made several excursions to China to photograph that country's industrial emergence. More on Edward Burtynsky

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Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don't own any of these images - credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

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01 Classic Works of Art, Marine Paintings, James Kay's DEPARTURE FROM THE CLYDE - With Footnotes, #184

James Kay (22 October 1858 - 26 September 1942)

DEPARTURE FROM THE CLYDE - BOUND FOR THE FRONT 

Oil on canvas 

76cm x 127cm (30in x 50in)
Private collection

The River Clyde is a river that flows into the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. It is the eighth-longest river in the United Kingdom, and the second-longest in Scotland. Traveling through the major city of Glasgow, it was an important river for shipbuilding and trade in the British Empire. To the Romans, it was Clota, and in the early medieval Cumbric language, it was known as Clud or Clut, and was central to the Kingdom of Strathclyde.

The Clyde became famous worldwide for its significant contribution to yachting and yachtbuilding. More than 55 boats were built by Robertson's Yard in preparation for the First World War, and the yard remained busy even during the Great Depression in the 1930s, as many wealthy businessmen developed a passion for yacht racing on the Clyde. During World War II, the yard was devoted to Admiralty work, producing large, high-speed Fairmile Marine motor boats. More on the Clyde

James Kay (22 October 1858 - 26 September 1942) was born on the Isle of Arran. He is arguably best known for his portrayals of the sea and the ships at work on the River Clyde, Glasgow. Working in Glasgow at the same time as the Glasgow Boys rose to prominence, Kay remained on the edges of this group. Unlike his peers, Kay continued to gain great pleasure from painting the busy, gritty streets and shipyards of the 'real' Glasgow. Like many other artists at the time, Kay was influenced by the Impressionists, but a great deal of originality can be seen in his paintings. He also equipped with the ability to reflect life and capture atmosphere in his work. 

The bustling shipyards of the Clyde provided Kay with great inspiration, and as can be seen in "Departure from the Clyde - Bound for the front", he was able to convey the drama of industrialisation through the smoke, grime, and water. Kay's informal style captures the activity and spectacle of the docks - there is a sense of optimism from the tightly grouped figures watching the ships depart, and the unusual composition enhances our sense as a viewer of being in the thick of the action, providing a true reflection of life in Glasgow at the time. More on James Kay

Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, Portrait of a Lady, The Orientalist, Art of the Nude and The Canals of Venice, Middle East Artists, 365 Saints and 365 Days, also visit my Boards on Pinterest

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don't own any of these images - credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

I do not sell art, art prints, framed posters or reproductions. Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

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Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.

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