For me boats and ships have always been important subjects. My very successful etching “The small Titanic” of 1995, (my Diploma work for entry into the Royal Academy) recently came out of retirement to feature in a show at Hastings Contemporary called “Seafaring” and received many accolades. I ascribed it’s origins to a trip as a 10 year old across the Channel on an overnight ferry. The cut away drawings of all the goings on aboard that I did subsequently (influenced a little bit by those wonderful Eagle Comic double page spreads) led to many “opening the doll’s house door” drawings and prints from Banks to apartment blocks which have become one of my trade marks.

 “Ship” comes from this tradition, but owes something to Plato’s Ship of State and Ship of Fools expounded in his “Republic”. The State is seen as a vessel that can be wisely or unwisely captained. Nautical themes have appeared recently in my ongoing series of satirical drawings that appear on Instagram. Voyages are always risky and inside ships there are many twists and turns of power and fate. Who would have believed a year ago that Britain would now be dropping the Pilot and changing deckchairs?

 Unlike the Titanic, my Ship is not heading for the iceberg, but much more likely to come a cropper from internal strife and meltdown. Dancing and feasting on board, as well as many other more risky activities, are all very well, but the lookout better look out, and the engineer better wake up. Passengers, enjoy yourselves while you may, but don’t rock the boat. The hope for all voyagers is that dry land is not far away.