Introducing the Dannebrog Gallery

I enjoy my sketching, as it allows me to express my ideas, my memories and those unique moments of inspiration when I feel I must get something on canvas.  Some of my sketches are below with some thoughts on what they are about, there tends to be a story behind them all.

It seems only right that as the Gallery is called Dannebrog, that we have a sketch of the Dannebrog sailing into Hardangerfjord and by the looks of things, joining in Bruderferden, certainly seems that the party goers are toasting the Royal Yacht.  Is that a bottle of Linie Aquavit I see on the table.

The Dannebrog sketch is based on my copy of  ‘Bruderferden i Hardangerfjord’, slightly faded with time, and my apologies to Tidemand and Gude, as I have removed the 2 girls amidships and painted in my daughters in school uniform and to the right, my cat Tiberius is wondering what is going on!  

This next sketch features HMS Russell, a Blackwood Class Anti Submarine Frigate sailing into Portsmouth Harbour.  There are 3 Major Russells, leaning on the seawall by the pub, Grandfather, Father and me watching the warship, named after a distant relative sweep into harbour.  This was our favourite pub in days gone by, still is for me, and you can still get a pint of HSB.

I was in Cornwall some time back, Pilot Gig rowing, as one does, and on the

way back, visited Polzeath to look for Pantiles Point, where Laurence Binyon was inspired to write his poem ‘For The Fallen’.  I wondered what had inspired him as I stood there and after a few minutes, felt I had to put something on canvas.  The sketch features a soldier on leave from the front, surrounded by poppies, gazing at the horizon.  If you look closely at the cloud structures they seem to take on shapes of soldiers in action, bit more than just clouds all of a sudden.  I wondered if this was what had inspired him.

During the Summer months, I took a stroll on the coastal path alongside the Exe Estuary.  I  was heading for a favourite Pub for a pint and a pie where I could sit and watch the Egrets and, if I was lucky, a Kingfisher, on one of the tributary rivers.  On the way, I came upon an old fishing boat wreck just as the sun came out to say hello.

The Cathedral was bathed in sunlight.

Had to sketch this one!

In 1967 my family returned from Malaya where my father had been stationed with the 9th Malay Regiment at the Royal Military College Sungai Besi.  We stayed briefly with my English Grandparents who had a house overlooking the Solent.  What a lovely time with all those beautiful ships returning or heading out to their destinations.  I recall seeing the Bremen passing Gilkicker Fort, the image stuck in my mind ever since.

  Bit of artistic licence here again.  She sunk in 1980 on her way to the breakers yard, note the Spinnaker Tower on her starboard beam, not built until 1995 but this is a study in light and perspective.

We came back from Malaya on the SS Cathay, a very comfortable 2 week voyage on this P & O  Cargo Passenger Liner.

The next day I saw her heading down the Solent on her way back to Malaya, carrying out lifeboat drills, wonderful care free days.

Back in those ‘Good Old’ days we would take our school holidays in Norway, where my mother’s family come from.  We used to catch one of the Fred Olsen ferries, either the Braemar or the Blenheim for the 2-3 day crossing.  On the second day, the ships would pass and everyone would race up on deck and wave madly at everyone else on the other ship……lovely days.

One of the highlights of the ferry passage to Norway was the beautiful scenery sailing down the Oslo Fjord.  I recall seeing Christian Radich passing the famous Oscarsborg Festning, the island fortress guarding the capital.

We used to stay at my Norwegian Grandfather’s log cabin, Finnabu, built in the late 1930’s.  So peaceful.  Routine on arrival was for my sister and I to disappear into the woods with a bucket each, not allowed to return until they were full of blueberries and we were both covered in red blueberry  juice!

Not long finished a warscape from Northern Ireland days back in the 80s.

I’ve called it ‘Beauty and the Beast’.  Beauty, Lough Erne and the beautiful Fermanagh countryside.  The Beast, watch towers and the sound of helicopters, always somewhere.  The sketch features a foot patrol of soldiers from the Royal Hampshire Regiment.  Their Regimental badge sits above my Family Crest.  During my two years in the Province, visited the area once, couldn’t see much through an inch of thickened green glass though.

There’s an old WW2 airfield near where I live which used to be called RAF Up Ottery and this is where Easy Company of the 506th set off to join the war in Europe in June 1944.  It was a chilly, misty morning and I was sure I saw C47s lining up in the mist to take off.  Could have been my imagination though!

SS River Clyde sketch, now complete and heading for V Beach at Gallipoli, 1915, packed with soldiers from the Hampshire Regiment, the Royal Munster and the Royal Dublin Fusiliers.  It was a blood bath.  The SS River Clyde survived the War and was not scrapped until 1967.  I wonder if there were ghosts in the holds…. can you imagine!

 HMS Rawalpindi has joined the gallery.  The sketch depicts the gallant Rawalpindi charging the battle cruisers Gneisneau and Scharnhorst in 1939.  11 inch shell splash in the centre.  Is that the Viking Sea Goddess Ràn within the splash telling Rawalpindi of her impending doom in 48 minutes?

Where I work, we do a lot of business with overseas partners and products are shipped over on the massive Maersk container ships.  I suggested to the MD one day, he ought to have a sketch of one of these leviathans leaving Hong Kong, in his office and…’ there she blows…!’

I was commissioned to sketch something topical for one of our suppliers.  The name of this organisation roughly translates as ‘Golden Hind’.  So I thought a traditional Chinese scene of mirrored reflections, with the ship alongside, and various factory open day activities taking place might be in order.  The visitors, of course, had to be the Terracotta Army taking part in mahjong and archery competitions, and one group looking into terracotta garden pots.

My favourite part of the sketch is that the archery competition is sponsored by Archers Ales of Swindon!

Was chatting to one of my colleagues at work recently and he told me that his Great Uncle had served on HMS Monmouth at the Battle of the Coronel in 1914 and had gone down with the ship during the battle.  So I thought it appropriate to sketch my version.

It’s a slightly heroic image as the weather was ghastly on the day!

One of my fellow Gig rowers asked me if I could sketch HMS Hood for a friend.  Looks like another Great Uncle who went down with her.  Gosh, how should I portray this one?

I thought I would try and pick out the urgency of the moment with HMS Hood and HMS Prince of Wales steaming at full speed heading for the Denmark Strait to intercept the Bismark….and the rest is history!

Having one of my random moments the other day, I sketched an image of a cargo passenger liner from the 1950s alongside the quay at Exmouth with all sorts going on in the Estuary, slightly random as such a ship would not be able tie up alongside.

………but such is artistic license!

Here we go, HMS Albemarle, Exmouth and Russell, you can tell by the funnel bands, obviously.  Pre-Dreadnought Fast Battleships, in their day, 1905, could achieve 21 knots.  And lots going on in the Exe Estuary, BBQ at Gin Wharf Quay and the artist reading the times in the rowing boat astern of the yacht.

Well, with the current pandemic and the view I have across the estuary, we have Cruise Ships waiting to get back to work.  Knocked out a reflective sketch of the Queen Mary 2 and a couple of P&O ships.  Bottom left is my place of work, spookily looking like a cruise ship.  Artistic license again….

Sketched a picture of the Ellerman Line cargo liner City of Hull for a colleague at work called Hull….easy one, I like my sea in this sketch, makes one feel a tad queezy, and can you smell greasy oil fuel from the funnel? Unfortunately, didn’t take a snap of the finished sketch with Family Crest and signature!

Couple of occasions when rowing at Pilot Gig Regattas, The Battle of Britain Flight has flown passed, heading or returning somewhere. In my ‘brushes mind’s eye’ I thought, what if we have a Gig called Raptor, rowed by a crew of raptors, cox’d by a T-Rex, with Pterodactyls swooping passed Tiberius, my cat, windsurfing, and joining the iconic aircraft. The backdrop is based on the Budleigh Salterton shoreline with diplodocuses foraging on the cliff tops.

…..but what is that dark shadow under the Gig…….?

Here in Taunton, where we live, we are surrounded by hills, and from my landing, I can see the Quantocks and in particular, the Seven Sisters group of trees. My parents ashes are sprinkled here, so I can greet them each morning or chat to them when I’m pressing my kit.

Eloped to the Scillies in 2023 to watch the World Pilot Gig Championships, and get married at the same time, and took a couple of days either side of the competition to explore the islands. Had a stroll round Tresco and came across an old parliamentarian fort from the Civil War. I imagined the first Scillonian steaming through the straights……wonderful couple of days!!

………keep sketching ‘yowl