Tuesday, September 13, 2011

My Paintings of Barges on Yorkshire Waterways.

"Comrade and Audrey on the Humber" oil 

I recently sold a small oil painting 'Freight for Rotherham" and memories of a time in the 1990s came flooding back. At that time in my narrowboat 'Sprotbro' Painter'  I had a wonderful time cruising around the canal system painting all sorts of waterway craft, these are just a few.

"Afternoon Sailing, Comrade and Audrey off Spurn Point" oil on board 24"x18"

I am a member of the Guild of Waterway Artists and we used to meet up every year and hold an exhibition of our work at Stoke Bruerne, the trip down in our narrow-boat took a considerable time and there were many interesting things I wanted to paint. This next painting, a small oil, was the result of a view I recorded on the River Trent as we passed a barge loading gravel.

"Loading gravel on the River Trent" small oil on board.

To get to the River Trent from Sprotbrough we had to go through Bramwith Lock which lies east of Doncaster. Thorpe Marsh power station which is shown in the background of the next painting is now partly demolished and I am not sure if all the cooling towers remain.

"Littlebeck at Bramwith Lock" oil on board.

An example of the results of heavy rain and floods, seen every so often  on our local waterways, these two barges, moored above the
weir, had come adrift, and had a 'coming together' by the bridge at Aldwarke near Rotherham. (sometime in the 1990s) 


"Floods at Aldwarke" oil on board.

I must say I do miss seeing the old barges carrying freight on our local waterway, the only freight on the river at present is Humber Princess on a twice weekly trip from Hull to Rotherham with fuel. 


She is a very impressive 60 meters long by 6 meters wide and bright red, I think a winter painting of her passing Levitt Hagg could be 'on the cards' !!

"Sprotbro' Painter" 1989-2003 

5 comments:

Linda said...

Your paintings are absolutely stunning. We're fortunate enough to live within walking distance of the local marina at Stenson. It's wonderful to walk along the towpath whatever the weather, and I never forget to take my camera with me!

Sheila Bury said...

Thank you Linda for the lovely compliment.

Priories Historical Society said...

Hi,

The cooling towers at Thorpe Marsh still remain - at least until later this year when they'll be dragged down (rather than blown up)

Unknown said...
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Unknown said...

run a free barge site would it be possible if l could post your painting of the barges on my site l off course would give you full credit on the captions of the painting s