Voyage of the Mayflower in rough seas - oil painting

The voyage of the Mayflower in 1620 is depicted in this oil painting. It is seen in stormy weather in the North Atlantic on its way to the New World, after leaving Plymouth with Pilgrims from Holland and England. It is a small cargo ship, about 100ft long and it would have been a rough journey for the passengers as it was not built for people. It was also quite cramped as the original plan was for a second ship, Speedwell, to have also undertook the journey but it was found that it was to be unseaworthy at Plymouth, so the Mayflower had to take the extra load. The journey took approximately 2 months.

The painting is created in oils on a 24” x 36” canvas during September/ October 2019. As no one actually knows what the ship looked like various pieces of reference were cobbled together to create the most version of the design. Composition wise the image was at first designed on a computer art program where the initial drawing was envisaged and then painted digitally to find a good combination of colours. Once a suitable solution had been found it was then redrawn on a canvas and painted in the traditional manner. It was intended for the painting to be displayed as part of the celebrations held for the event at the Southampton City gallery but the COVID19 pandemic meant that the exhibition did not take place as planned and was substituted by an online one.

The artwork can be view in close up by going to this site. XXXX