Wood to Water

Last Friday evening Graham and I went to the Private View of James Dodds’ exhibition, ‘Wood to Water’, at the Firstsite gallery in Colchester.

The most spectacular painting is a 20 foot long Colchester Smack, but there were also some interesting paintings of the interior structure of various traditional boats, lots of large lino prints, and some intriguing carvings made from the roof panels of James’ grandfather’s old beach hut from Brightlingsea.

THE most spectacular thing to me, though, was the real Colchester Smack that was ‘moored’ just outside the entrance to the gallery, eerily lit with violet blue floodlights. She is the ‘Hyacinth’ . . . . . .

 . . . . . and although she appears small, dwarfed by the enormous angled frontage of the gallery, when some people strayed into my shot to give a bit of proportion, you can see how big she actually is!

The show is on until 14th February, open Monday to Sunday 10am – 5pm.

I am definitely going back in daylight to do some drawings of the Hyacinth of Colchester!

Hope your week has got off to a good start. 🙂

Christmas tree photos tomorrow!