Call of the Running Tide: Martyn Mackrill and James Dodds

About

Born on the Isle of Wight where he is still resident, the son of a marine engineer in the Merchant Navy and a grandson of the owner of a fleet of trawlers, there was no point at which Martyn Mackrill consciously made a decision to become a marine painter. His earliest days were spent around boats and harbours, and drawing and painting his surroundings came as a natural extension to this way of life.

Once a shipwright, Dodds’ paintings illustrate the anatomy of boats, revealing the materials and curves that underwrite the finished vessel. His paintings go beyond retracing the shipwright’s logic. Rich in colour, tone and texture, they move beyond the literal and evoke sailing’s mythic and historic dimensions. Ethereal in light and tone, paintings of restored boats evoke a lifetime at sea, unearthing the layers of memory that shroud every vessel.