"Beneath The Surface" is a collection of images exploring the effects of time and the elements on the Hulls of Boats. Hardwoods, fiberglass and steel provide the canvas for these lived experiences. A lifetime immersed in SALT WATER, exposure to harsh sunlight and the wear and tear that working craft are submitted to, combine to alter the painted surface. It is beneath this surface that the images lie.



As I discovered the compositions, I came to view them as FOUND PAINTINGS, abstract expressions and aerial landscapes; pre-existing artworks waiting to be revealed. The act of framing them in camera defines and brings them to life. Cropping is as much about what you leave out as what you include.



The more I pondered my Found Paintings the more I realised that these were not paintings at all, but quite the reverse. The act of painting involves the application of layers of paint; here the layers were being removed. It was the

OPPOSITE OF PAINTING. I wasn’t telling stories, I was discovering them, recording them. The stories, like the painted hulls, have many layers, some literal, others more ambiguous: The Cornish fishing boat, scratched and polished by countless nets and lobster pots being hauled aboard; the Indonesian outrigger with a plate of metal riveted to the side and cracks filled with putty and silicone, resembling a Pop Art “Stars & Stripes”; the upturned fibreglass tender on Australia’s Patonga Beach, all scuffed and chipped to appear like a satellite image of the earth’s surface.



The stories lay beneath the surface, what interpretive meanings they offer is up to the viewer