Some of you will not have received my email Christmas card and new Christmas News letter, copy below.

Reasons for this include bounced and blocked emails (more on that below).

The Internet can be bizarre, I’d had a reply from Robin Knox-Johnston, star of my “Roaring Forties” painting, then got an, INVALID RECIPIENT message re the address!

The snow here has departed but as last week’s photos look so “Christmasie” here are 2 more.

I hope you approve this slight cheating and enjoy them! 

Today we have a grey damp day with 14 C, feels like a heat wave after last week. 

~

Reasons emails failed include: 550 INVALID RECIPIENT.

This auto reply added “You may resend the message placing the code: A45-207 somewhere in the subject to bypass the anti-spam checks” – very nice of them…

How am I supposed to remember that in future?

“I’m sorry to have to inform you that your message could not be delivered to one or more recipients” not as sorry as I am, I value my friends!

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification. so, your point is?

“Delivery to the following recipients failed” anyone think email is infallible???

My favourite, and I use the word favour in it’s loosest possible terms, is “This account is protected by Bluebottle.  Please click on the following link to have your address added to the recipient’s allowed list and to ensure delivery of your email“.

Despite following the instructions most carefully I am yet to have a reply from an account protected by this enthusiastic system…

I presume it appropriately was named after one of the stars of the BBC Goon Show?

Would you like to guess what I think of it?

I almost liked: “Delivery has failed to these recipients or distribution lists: The recipient’s e-mail address was not found in the recipient’s e-mail system. Microsoft Exchange will not try to redeliver this message for you. Please check the e-mail address and try resending this message, or provide the following diagnostic text to your system administrator“.

It at least included in it’s title “Undeliverable: all the best for the festive season“.

Then I realised that was the title I’d used…

Ahh well, ce la vie, email 2009, fallible but still very useful.

~

As promised above, a copy of the newsletter for you, enjoy.

An artist’s news letter

Your news is always welcome, here is a little of my news…

That was the year that was…

Better news is prospects for 2010 and 11/12 look much improved, with copy of my ecard on your right. 

If any of the following is useful in one of your news letters, personal or business, feel, free to reproduce it or if needed, ask me for further info.

Probably the single biggest news of my year is via a client/friend I have the good fortune to be invited to exhibit at the European Parliament, Brussels next year.

Julie Clark of Savage Marine Ltd, they normally design high quality Marine architectural lighting for super yachts, has kindly offered to help with the lighting. (www.savagelighting.com)

Anyone know about grants, European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), an investor or other?

Flavour of the month?
Other significant people and places now begin to ask to show my art work

I have been asked by the editor of Sea Breezes to write 1000 words on superyachts, with photos.
To be based around my experiences on the cote d’azur in June and at Monte Carlo with the emphasis on looking at 2010.
I have written for Sea Breezes before, this time will be the most fun and good for net working.

New paintings
I have started a file round the Alert cutter and Lexington brig engagement, for my good friend Peter Goodwin.

Peter is the author of 12 fine books on historic ships and curator of HMS Victory.

The attached photo right, “Christmas Victory” was taken while visiting Peter after being filmed in Nelson’s day cabin for the BBC doc due out in the spring, “The boats that made Britain“. 

~

Additionally I am currently working on marine paintings described on my latest blog entries including Plymouth by moonlight, the Samuel Plimsoll, Porto Fino at dusk with super yachts, Laperouse at Botany Bay, the loss of the Spanish frigate Mercedes, a new Trafalgar Dawn, mermaids and HMS Unique.

New in print
During this year my team and I, Alan Tooze with Adaptgraphics and my web master have added 3 new marine prints to the range.
2 in the Prestige style,
“HMS Formidable, 1942, Seafires returning” and
“Jane Banks entering Bermuda”
and one (not really a marine print) to our Limited editions,
“The Flying Scotsman on the Tamar Bridge”.
The latter 2 are so new we have not yet had time to post them so ask me for details.

The schooner Jane Banks you may recall was the final running mate of the famous last British square rigger Waterwitch?
Now the pair are in print maybe they can be re united as a pair on your wall?
Plus, they sit very well with “A dispute settled”, which shows 2 other famous Cornish schooners, Katie Cluett and Rhoda Mary.

A New brochure, yacht orientated, created as part of the preparation to attend The Monaco Yacht Show 2009 at Monte Carlo, is considered by some a collector’s item so can we count that as a success?
Free copy on web site home page soon or better still, ask for an original in the post.

I hope you enjoy the brochure.

~

I retain a base in Plymouth thanks mostly to my very good friend and excellent fellow painter David Folley.
Partly because of the excellent light I am spending more time in Itzac, a tiny hill top village in the Northern Tarn, Midi Pyrenees, about half way between the Med and the Atlantic.
You’d be very welcome at Itzac but may need directions for the last few kilometres!

~

All my contact details are always shown on my web site page contact us –

http://www.frickers.co.uk/contact.html

~

On the subject of staying in touch, if we don’t already have a linkin link, it might help you professionally or people you know to have a link?
Plus, Linkin recommendations are very helpful to all concerned. http://www.linkedin.com/home

Now and then, a bit about the year gone and a bit of the future predicted.
I won’t write much here as my blog (www.frickers.co.uk/blog) now covers most of the news as it happens or more truly, soon after.

~

2009 was predictably a difficult year for most of us, few artists being excepted from that!
I used the year to re position myself in the marine art world and further develop my web site.
To those ends, the UK Trades Investment scheme people have been very helpful again as have the British Marine Federation.
Of the latter I am delighted to be the only artist invited to be member.

During 2009 among other designs to promote my art work, time was employed in Plymouth, visiting some of the coasts of France, Bassin de Arcachon, toured the fabulous Cote d’azur where I was based in Antibes, attended the Monaco Yacht Show.
I have been filmed with Tom Cunliffe on HMS Victory as part of a programme on the ship that carried the news of Trafalgar (“The boats that made Britain” due to be shown on the BBC next spring), by a Television Production Company called Form Films who specialize in making High End Factual documentaries.
I attended the BMF showcase at the British Ambassador’s Residence Paris, and researched in such diverse places as H.M. Hydrographic Office Taunton and the Musee Marine Paris.
These and more stories with photos are on my blog.

~

Looking further into 2010 and beyond
I am now focused primarily on the invitation to exhibit at the European Parliament, Brussels next year, date to be set but probably May ~ let me know if you’d like an invitation?

It is rare for a British artist to be invited to show at the European Parliament.
As far as I know I am the first marine artist to be invited, the first who works in England and France, the first from Midi Pyrenees, the first from Devon, the first from the Tarn and certainly the first from little Itzac.

Beside the marine paintings, I will show some of my experimental landscapes and a few other surprises including the Flying Scotsman and a cockpit view from a Boeing 727.

There are also some possibilities in New York and the French wine industry.

Will I need 2011 to recover and prepare for 2012?

With luck and a following wind 2012 will be busy too, the London Olympic people are interested in my painting, there is the war of 1812 ~ USA v Britain described by one of my American friends as a good war because both sides thought they won, the Titanic anniversary, another Vendee Globe etc.

All these new paintings are adventures, they are awaiting purchase and new homes, who will we meet through them?

~

Great paintings take time. There are only so many paintings I can produce per year and I won’t live for ever so I hope this encourages people to declare their interest, I need the encouragement and work.
I am also very conscious none of this would have been possible with out the support, encouragement and friendships of people like yourself.

I wish you and those you treasure all the festive best and a healthy, prosperous and happy 2010, thank you.

Gordon Frickers.

The schooner “Jane Banks” was the last British square rigger with out an engine to trade “foreign”, barely surviving her final crossing of the Bay of Biscay.

You can read more of the life and adventures of Jane Banks by following the further reading links from page

http://www.frickers.co.uk/marine-art/jane_banks_entering.html which in turn will lead you to a second painting of her in our archive section and more text.

http://www.frickers.co.uk/marine-art/jane_banks_leaving_extra.html

This picture (http://www.frickers.co.uk/marine-art/jane_banks_entering.html) gives us a beautiful set of 3 of the most famous of the Cornish merchant schooners, working ships for you to collect.

The other pictures being Waterwitch, the running mate of Jane Banks,

(http://www.frickers.co.uk/marine-art/waterwitch.html)

and “A dispute settled“, the latter showing the Cornish Schooners Katie Cluett and Rhoda Mary,

(http://www.frickers.co.uk/marine-art/dispute_settled.html).

The new marine print has we hope you will agree, captured the warm colours off Bermuda so adds a special dimension to the trio of marine pictures, the working ships shown in the other 2 paintings being off the Cornish coast, Falmouth and Fowey respectively.

Thus “Jane Banks entering Bermuda” is now available for you to add to your collection.

You can order securely online and soon Jane Banks will appear in our Print Gallery in a few weeks time.

http://www.frickers.co.uk/prints.html

This is a site one can still visit.

While there is next to nothing left of the yard proper, one can still plainly see outlines of the old quays, docks and dry docks, saw pits etc.
A remarkable relic of pre industrial revolution merchant ship building.
Does this make this site unique in Britain?
Should the site have a conservation order placed on it and if so by whom?

Our interest in the site stems from a long and treasured friendship with Geoff Trebilcock the history of which included his late father commissioning me to paint research and paint
<”Rhoda Mary” and “Katie Cluett”>
A Dispute Settled
You can visit our Print Gallery to see this painting at www.frickers.co.uk/prints

You can  add this remarkable, atmospheric picture of the 2 crack schooners “going for it” to your Prestige collection print, order now  from this page and pay securely using Paypal http://www.frickers.co.uk/prints.html

The Katie Cluett was built at the nearby Port of Fowey where the Royal Fowey Yacht Club now stands.
At Loe Beach near Feock , near the place Rhoda Mary was built is the grave of William Ferris, her builder and Geoff’s ancestor.
The inscription reads:
William Ferris (shipbuilder) Died 20th June 1921 aged 88 years. Joanna died May 9th 1903 aged 69. Gone but not forgotten.
Gordon Frickers visited the grave with his friend and shipmate of many years Mr. Trebilcock.
When asked what William would make of the attention to his ship after all these years, Mr. Trebilcock a descendant of William Ferris replied “I think he would be very surprised”.
Gordon during his years living at Falmouth got to know several of the Ferris and Trebilcock clan, racing against and sometimes sailing with the late Henry Ferris when they were all members of Restronguet Sailing Club.

Henry Ferris was a delight to be with, very Cornish. My guess is William was not very different to Henry. A former Mosquito pilot, it was said he was so short he had to sit on cushions to see out of his fighter bomber! After the war, Henry became a school teacher, friend of many and very fine helmsman”.

Do you know more on the above subjects? If you do, we would like to hear from you, thanks.

The tale gets better;

Not only did “Rhoda Mary” and “Katie Cluett” soon become crack ships, both were Cornish built in the rival ports of Falmouth and Fowey.

They were built by different members of the same Cornish (Ferris) family!

I’m ready to order a print, take me to the print order form.

I’d like to commission a similar painting, please take me to how to order

As trading vessels

There was a time when some 3 or 4 thousand little ships traded the coast of Britain, Europe and sometimes voyaged to North America.

The quickest, handiest and most graceful were the topsail schooners.

Among sea men it was generally considered two were exceptional.

It was often said based on passage times, “Rhoda Mary” and “Katie Cluett“, were the fastest and most elegant of the 4,000 ‘ish working schooners sailing from British ports between the 1870’s and 1930’s.

While “Rhoda Mary” and “Katie Cluett” had elegance and a functional beauty, they remained very much working ships. “Rhoda Mary” and “Katie Cluett” had no time for frivolity.

Daily they risked their all on dangerous coasts, summer and winter, come calm or storm.

These 2 hard driven schooners never had time for regattas or racing.

Built and maintained to an equivalent standard to superyachts, “Rhoda Mary” and “Katie Cluett” were considered the “Cutty Sark” and “Thermopylae“ of the coast trade, crack ships.

Their task was to turn a tidy profit for shareholders.

Quick reliable passage making meant more cargos thus more returns on the investment.

Consequently voyage times were reported in the press and widely read with great interest.

As with the illustrious Tea Clippers, many a bet was laid on a ship’s arrival time!

However, once and only once did “Rhoda Mary” and “Katie Cluett” leave a port together.

They took the opportunity to race each other out of Falmouth Roads.

Family history

At Falmouth in the West of Cornwall some time according to Trebilcock family oral history, between 1904 and 1907 this matter long disputed by coastal seamen and Cornish families was settled when, once and only once, by chance these two great rivals came to port together, at Falmouth, Cornwall.

Can you imagine the scene?

The 2 crews and maybe owners must have met at Falmouth, maybe drank and ate together?

Our painting dramatically captures some thing of the excitement as “Rhoda Mary” and “Katie Cluett” pass St Mawes and with St Anthony’s Lighthouse and Fraggle Rock abeam they taste the open sea.

We see them as they clear the entrance to Carrick Roads and enter Falmouth Bay.

The schooners surge passed the inbound sloop “Mary“, also a family vessel.

“Mary” has brailed her main sail to take off way and is speaking with the “Rhoda Mary“; the crews of all 3 craft busy with their tasks are impressive as are other details like St Mawes Castle and even the now long vanished bell on St Anthony’s light.

(”Fraggle Rock” Lighthouse later to the delight of Falmouthian,s was made famous in a children’s program).

The carefully chosen view point and background, the dramatic angle, the vitality, the understanding of ships, wind, sea, even of the tasks the crew are shown working on – if asked “do you paint portraits?”, Gordon Frickers has been known to reply “yes mostly about 1 cm high!”.

The painting classically demonstrates Gordon Frickers experience as sailor, painter and photographer.

Would you like to commission a similar painting?

Easy! Just follow this link to how to order.

Designed and built

The Ferris and Trebilcock families have a very long association with the sea, for example the name Ferris appears as an R.N. Captain, several times in the Naval Chronicle of the war against Napoleon.

“Rhoda Mary” was built by William Ferris; “Rhoda Mary” was launched off the beach at the mouth of Restronguet Creek, Falmouth in 1868.

It is still possible to see on the beach, the remains of were ships were built.

“Rhoda Mary” entered the hard life of coastal cargo trading around Northern Europe – where she proved to be exceptionally quick and reliable.

The sloop “Mary” of similar origin and sturdy reputation, spent her life mostly carrying Granite from the Lizard to Falmouth.

Around 1870, Peter Ferris left his brother William Ferris to build “Katie Cluett” probably at Caffa Mill, certainly at the port of Fowey, a few miles up the coast of Cornwall and she was launched in 1876.

“Katie Cluett“, similar in appearance to “Rhoda Mary” and also named after a sweetheart soon proved to be an other flier.

Both ships were named after family sweet hearts, both spent their lives voyaging with cargo, summer and winter, in most hazardous waters without the benefit of modern navigational aids.

If you have other information about these 3 ships, we would be doubly pleased to hear from you via contact us

The artist knows these people and waters well having lived at Falmouth and Fowey, and still sometimes sails with and against the descendants.

“A dispute settled”, commissioned by descendants of the winner, this painting is a glimpse of that day and proudly records “Rhoda Mary’s” victory for posterity.

Would you like to commission a similar painting? Easy!

Just follow this link to how to order.

Like to order a print?

Easy! Just follow the print order form.

© Gordon Frickers 2008

History of the painting

“A dispute settled” was:

shown for the first time at Pendennis Castle and the picture chosen as a delegates memento for the British Marine Federation / Superyachtuk “International Tour of Excellence 2008″.

Published as a greetings card by Gordon Fraser Gallery 1990 under a 5 year licence agreement.

This painting has never been exhibited in public.

Some Sources consulted included:

The World Ship Society

The National Maritime Museum (Greenwich and Cotehelle)

There is a fine model of “Rhoda Mary“, last seen by Gordon Frickers and photographed with their kind permission (as the painting was to be for family descendants) in the National Maritime Museum annex at Cotehelle Quay.

“Rhoda Mary” and “Katie Cluett” are mentioned in several books including the rare “Coastwise Sail” and Basil, Greenhill’s “Merchant Schooners”.

Our paintings “Waterwitch off Gribben Head“ shows the last of the British square rigger and “The schooner “Jane Banks” leaving Fowey“ a typical running mate to “Rhoda Mary” and “Katie Cluett“.