LONDON.- David Messum Fine Art is now staging a selling exhibition of new work by the celebrated marine artist, Martyn Mackrill. The pictures in this show demonstrate how Mackrill is now accepted among the foremost marine artists of his generation, working in the tradition of some of the famous names in the world of maritime painting, such as Charles Napier Hemy (1841-1917) and Norman Wilkinson (1878-1971). Both Napier Hemy and Wilkinson held the position of honorary painter for the Royal Yacht Squadron, a post that is currently occupied by Martyn Mackrill.

Mackrill’s oils and watercolours underline the enduring importance and fascination the sea exerts on the psyche of both artists and collectors alike. Their diversity beautifully illustrates the importance of Britain’s maritime history and the working landscape of coastal Britain. They are a vehicle for a variety of emotions and sentiments, taking the viewer with consummate skill on a journey around the British Isles.

Martyn Mackrill

Born in 1962 on the Isle of Wight, where he still lives, Mackrill studied art at Portsmouth College of Art, and then model making at Sunderland Polytechnic (building models of boats is still a keen hobby). His paintings in oil and watercolour are inspired by the likes of Arthur Briscoe, Thomas Somerscales and the aforementioned Norman Wilkinson. He also cites the Glasgow Boys as an influence – the group of radical young late Victorian and Early Edwardian Scottish artists with a taste for realism, naturalism and working en plein air.

Marines at David Messum Fine Art

Since David Messum Fine Art first opened in 1963, the company has been renowned for promoting the work of the early Newlyn and St Ives painters and of other great marine painters past and present. The galleries first premises at 11 Bury Street in the 1970s signalled a major development in the company’s trading, providing a prestigious location to deal high quality traditional and British Impressionist paintings, whilst also expanding the gallery’s offering into marine paintings.

David Messum Fine Art, 12 Bury Street, St. James’s.
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August 8th, 2023 - August 25th, 2023