Titanic paintings at Southampton art Gallery on display

Retracing the Unsinkable. Titanic painting exhibition at Southampton Art Gallery.

titanic wreck: save our souls. this is a composite of the three stages of the painting.

         titanic at sea: full speed ahead. this is a composite of the three stages of the painting.


The paintings that I submitted to the gallery are discussed in an earlier post. Here I am showing them hanging at the gallery themselves.

The exhibitions formal title is Retracing the Unsinkable Southampton City Art Gallery's Biennial Open Exhibition 2012. It runs from the 17th March – 29th April 2012

The blog page showing the two Titanic paintings in full is here.

One of the paintings on the wall with some of the other works.

Martin Davey with titanic wreck: save our souls

Martin Davey with titanic at sea: full speed ahead

Titanic oil paintings

Titanic paintings. Two paintings on show at Southampton art gallery 2012.

Titanic at sea: full speed ahead

Titanic wreck: save our souls

This is a set of two paintings depicting the Titanic, the ship in the famous marine disaster of April 1912. They are both painted larger than my usual oil paintings, at a size 27.5" x 19.6", though did not take that much more time to do than normally. Drawings were prepared from looking at many photos, drawings and paintings of the ship. I thought it important to get as many details correct, though I'm sure I have missed some fine details! But hopefully the right impression is created as the ship looks 'right'. They were painted between november 2011 and jan 2012. The 'Titanic wreck' being the first.

Titanic at sea: full speed ahead
In this picture I wanted to convey the bulk of the ship, and its unstoppable power. It seemed that a low angle shot was required to convey this although it means that most of the canvas is painted black! but I like to think that in this case it is allowed, the ship is black in reality. The big dark, alien man made shape has an interesting quality slicing through the naturally curvy, colourful water of the ocean.
The lone figure standing near the Titanic's bow mainly is there to give an idea of scale. There is another figure, almost hidden, in the form of a lookout posted in the crows nest, on the large mast. I suppose the painting is not a happy one despite its drama. The main figure is perhaps contemplating his future on the trip to New York. In the sky heavy clouds can be seen, mixing with the dense smoke gushing out of the funnels, indicating the relentless power of the Titanic.

Titanic wreck: save our souls 
This picture depicts the wreck of the titanic. The painting may look odd in terms of perspective, but is correct. When the ship hit the ocean floor the bow buckled and was forced to pointing slightly downwards when compared to the rest of the ship. This then caused a hole to be ripped on the hull, on the left side of the painting. Additionally the ground has been forced upward by the bow digging in to the sea bed.
Of course the image is a 'fantastical' view. In reality the view is pitch black at this depth in the ocean. The light from the submarine would never be able to light up the ship like this. But close up photographs do reveal a vibrant, orangey/ red colour to Titanic's hull, with the yellow 'rusticals' running vertically down. The submarine itself is based on 'Alvin' , the vehicle that discovered the Titanic, together with the small robotic probe tethered to the main unit. Finally the mysterious lights lined up along the bow are up to the viewer to decide. They could be the 'lost souls' awaiting rescue.