The Boat Series Poem Paintings

This is the series of paintings I have recently been working on! Poetry inspired by the sea and boats is the theme. I will be posting more paintings here as I make them.

The two paintings displayed below were made using the poem 'The Sea' by Barry Cornwall.

I will be selling these are both prints, and also table mats and coasters. Visit my shop to checkout the full range of my artwork for sale

The Sea

THE SEA! the sea! the open sea!
The blue, the fresh, the ever free!
Without a mark, without a bound,
It runneth the earth’s wide regions round;
It plays with the clouds; it mocks the skies;
Or like a cradled creature lies.

I ’m on the sea! I ’m on the sea!
I am where I would ever be;
With the blue above, and the blue below,
And silence wheresoe’er I go;
If a storm should come and awake the deep,
What matter? I shall ride and sleep.

I love, O, how I love to ride
On the fierce, foaming, bursting tide,
When every mad wave drowns the moon
Or whistles aloft his tempest tune,
And tells how goeth the world below,
And why the sou’west blasts do blow.

I never was on the dull, tame shore,
But I lov’d the great sea more and more,
And backwards flew to her billowy breast,
Like a bird that seeketh its mother’s nest;
And a mother she was, and is, to me;
For I was born on the open sea!
The waves were white, and red the morn,

In the noisy hour when I was born;
And the whale it whistled, the porpoise roll’d,
And the dolphins bared their backs of gold;
And never was heard such an outcry wild
As welcom’d to life the ocean-child!

I ’ve liv’d since then, in calm and strife,
Full fifty summers, a sailor’s life,
With wealth to spend and a power to range,
But never have sought nor sighed for change;
And Death, whenever he comes to me,
Shall come on the wild, unbounded sea!

Barry Cornwall (1787–1874)

Sea Fever. Inspired by the poem written by John Masefield

Coasters and table mats are now available in these designs and both measure 23cmx23cm. SOLD OUT! But I still have greetings cards and prints of these.

Please visit my Etsy store.

Etsy Shop

Greeting Cards

The Wild Unbounded Sea.
Inspired by The Sea The Sea by Barry Cornwall

The Sea The Sea.
Inspired by the poem by Barry Cornwall.

The Nene Valley stretches from West Northamptonshire all the way through Peterborough and has the Nene river flowing through it. The landscape is surrounded by lush farmland and old villages with hidden footpaths connecting them together. I have always used this landscape as the basis for my artwork showing the wildlife and hills of my home.

My artwork frequently uses a range of mixed media techniques that have also incorporated words. In recent years this has become more important and now collage is a major part of my work which often uses words poetry. The lines of various poems have been woven into my imagery - segments of which can be read.

The wide range of habitats such as wildflower meadows, wetlands, marshes, woodlands and wet grasslands are full of a diverse range of animals and birds. These offer endless inspiration for my artwork on a daily basis as I live right on the edge of a stunning nature reserve near the towns of Higham Ferrers, Irthlingborough and Rushden.