A Marine Artist's Portfolio

The Nautical Paintings of Susanne Fournais

Susanne Fournais Grube

• Publisher: Pen & Sword Transport
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781473896352
• Topic: Kunst
• Subtopic: Künstlermonographien

Susanne Fournaise Grube, has been painting marine scenes for over thirty years, during which time, she has produced a large portfolio of material, not only depicting ships and small craft, but also the architecture of marine buildings and light houses. This volume, for the first time, presents a good selection of her work, looking at most aspects of the artists subject matter. The book covers subjects painted for clients, both corporate and private, also including some material painted just for pleasure. Overall the work, is a good selection of material produced over many years, that is for the first time in the public domain.

Wooden boats and yachts

Boats have always been made out of wood; at the most basic level, the earliest vessels constructed were carved from wooden trunks, but advancements in shipbuilding resulted in the development of a wide range of vessels. Wood is an infinitely malleable material and as mankind’s skill in its use developed through the classical age, so wooden boats became ever more sophisticated: a process that has continued over the past two millennia.

The Vikings became masters in the creation of wooden fighting ships; their sleek vessels easily capable of traversing the stormy North Sea and Atlantic Ocean, bringing dread to the monks of northeast England and colonising Orkney, Shetland the Faroes and Iceland, before venturing to become the first European settlers on Greenland and North America.

The importance of oak in England for naval construction – an aspect musically recalled in the traditional melody Hearts of Oak – was such that Acts of Parliament were issued to ensure that trees were carefully husbanded. For example, pollarding was banned in the New Forest by an Act in 1698, to ensure trees of suitable quality were available for naval construction.

Britain has always been a seafaring nation and, until comparatively recently, the only material that these ships could have been constructed from was wood. ‘Copper-bottomed’ derived from the Royal Navy’s use of copper sheeting to cover the hull of its warships in the eighteenth century, a policy which both increased the speed of the ships in question, and protected the hulls from the many sea-borne creatures that would otherwise feast on the timbers.

Fishing boats and all types of working ships were built from wood; indeed many of the smaller vessels plying their trade around the coast still are. The author remembers well the traditional Danish fishing ...