Western Morning News - Saturday 30th August

Boatyard is Focus for River Paintings
by Bill Simpson

On viewing a bustling boatyard employing several skilled men, it’s natural to appreciate the hard labour required for each completed commission, gently slipping into the water when complete. It is busy, noisy and open to the elements and, while cold during the winter months, has a freshness about it during the summer from the river water all the men appreciate.

Not many people venture inside a boatyard; it’s a dusty and dirty place and quite dangerous for people not familiar with timber machinery.

There is also little to interest them, unless they are old seadogs themselves, keen to observe the next generation of yachts, mostly large timer-framed hulls reaching way beyond head height, almost identical to countless examples made all over the world. 

But an ingenious idea to create an exhibition area in a yard is set to change all the preconceived ideas. Mike Hooton, of the Weir Quay Boatyard on the banks of the River Tamar at Bere Alston, has, in conjunction with Isabell Pierson of Artmill, organised an exhibition entitled Three Painters in a Boatshed… Watching the River Flow.

Gone are all the partly finished hulls in the Weir Quay Boatyard, a traditional workshop with 100 moorings at the midpoint of the tidal reaches on the Tamar, as the interior has been cleared to make a gallery for three established artists providing their own, individual ideas on the Tamar, its importance in the area and the industries it has nourished.

It is down to Ian Heard, Richard Allman and Rita Smith to provide us with the answers as each has provided between 12 and 15 original works inspired by their personal response to the river in all its guises. One image is of the cavernous sheds at Mashfords at Cremyll where the Brixham trawler Pilgrim and the Lynher, one of only two remaining barges, are being repaired.

It is also hoped this exhibition could help discover a mutually beneficial union between man and river – one consistent with current economic and cultural conditions.

During the Victorian era the River Tamar was busier than the Mersey, ferrying goods and passengers. For centuries this river supported communities on both banks, until the 1930s, when these small industries were deserted in favour of nearby towns.

Now the area is largely inaccessible, except to the abundant wildlife, an aspect which is portrayed in the exhibition, together with boatyard scenes.

Rita Smith was excited by the patterns and rhythms of the boats out of the water; the masts against the sky and river colours. She also found the textures of ropes and chains against the boats’ sides interesting, and the way the rigging draws abstract shapes against hills in the distance.

This exhibition is on for two weeks, until Saturday, September 13.