Staring at the sea: revisited

Seascapes 52: week 26

This week I reshare one of the most influential seascape paintings from my childhood. My original blog prompted a flurry of corrections from my wise aunts.

The title of this painting is: Convoy (not the artist like I claimed in the last blog). It's by Ivor J. Roberts who was an artist that my grandfather supported. We lived with Grandad when I was a kid, so I grew up with quite a few Roberts creations. 

The painting depicts the Sunderland flying boat escorting a convoy of ships back from World War 2. It was painted in 1948. I believe the painting was a gift from Roberts to Grandad.

I didn't recall that it was an Ivor Roberts when I looked at it and took the photo on my last visit to Cape Town. Most of the Roberts artworks that I remember are beautiful wildlife paintings on sandstone (which is found on Cape Town's iconic Table Mountain). My favourites as a child were the birds he painted. But there was at least one antelope painting. I think it's an impala (but I'm sure someone in the family will correct me if I have that wrong). One of my favourites is this lovely kingfisher:

The painting (pretty sure now that it's an original not a print) now belongs to my uncle, Rob. You can read more about it's influence on me if you missed the previous blog here.