Inspired by my last week in Norway: strung out in bitter cold and rain, hiding and exploring Stavanger in the Stavanger 2008 festival works van. Peering past the rhythmical squeak of windscreen wipers, parked right up against the quayside, hard rain flattening matt the surface of the deep cold fjord water upon which floats the burning crimson parked tug boats. The flat cold steel of the war ship, dwarfing the very city it is moored up against. Two worlds juxtaposed like a killer whale beside a rabbit colony.
I explored this image in many monoprint versions at the Glasgow Print Studio in the winter of 2007-8.Study in Red and Grey, Stavanger
oil on canvas
36 x 75cm
2008
First exhibited in The Watermill for ‘The Sea Room’ collection in 2007. Featured in The RSA Annual Exhibition Nov-Dec 2009