This is the renowned marine painting, reproduced in several learned books and considered by some leading experts the definitive marine painting of HMS Pickle, a painting from which even the prints have created a history with copies going to among others, Princess Anne, The Princess Royal, The Royal Naval Air Service and the New York Yacht Club!

I have urgent dispatches is still available as a prestige limited edition.

Signed by the artist and at very affordable prices, as are many of the other prints in the Gordon Frickers growing selection.

I’m just starting to re optimize my web site, a job that is overdue and very likely to increase sales however only The Schooner Vagrant is currently at risk of being sold out.
You can check these prints out on page http://www.frickers.co.uk/prints.html, also place your order securely and easily online from this page

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Other Nelson news is the attached picture of Nelson at Gibraltar, while still a long way from finished as you can see from the following pop up pics, Nelson at Gibraltar is beginning to be detailed so completion is probably only about 20 hours away ~ but it has to compete with the Samuel Plimsoll for my attention!

As usual with my significant historical paintings there are some neat touches appearing.

For example when you read about this period some odd ship names keep coming up in the Mediterranean like Tartan and Xebec so thanks to my very rare copy of Serres great book guide to marine painters we have a Tartan and a Xebec in this painting.

Can you spot the Tartan and the Xebec?

Part of my intention is to recreate the business of Gibratar and it’s bay at that period hence the inclusion of the Tartan and Xebec.

Who knows which is which and what they were?

Of course the rigging of Minerve is barely started and the rigging on most of the other ships are incomplete however there is now enough detail to begin to guess how this marine painting will turn out particularly if you have had a long look at some of the pop up details on www.frickers.co.uk in the marine gallery.

Nelson is beginning to be identifiable, the uniforms of the Marine guard I think are correct (you know some thing I don’t? If so please speak up!) as are many other clothing details and away in the middle distance we can now see crew at work on the 74 gun ship of the line HMS Captain.

I hope by now if you are unfamiliar with my marine art you will have realised I carry out more than average research?

I consult some rather special sources and have even sailed on a square rigger which was 10 years older than the Cutty Sark!

For sure, Nelson at Gibraltar direct from me, it won’t cost the lucky purchaser anywhere near the asking price of the original of I have urgent dispatches!

Maybe that makes it a great bargain?
It’s what often happens to my paintings, I have to watch them re sold for far more than I got, ahh well, ce la vie and good luck to all the owners of my “children”.

Nelson at Gibraltar is not pre sold.

I am happy for who ever purchases, I aim to give excellent value to every clinet, my clients in turn have enabled me to have an amazing 30 years painting and I’ve learnt the ultimate compliment is I think, “I’ll buy it”!
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I am also working on a second version of Trafalgar Dawn, this time the French view at 06.05 but it is not sufficiently advanced to  show just yet.
I have though started the drawing. So what you yawn? Give me a break mate, this has taken 7 years to research that is a detective story in it’s self!
This is going to be a famous painting, make no mistake about that.
The French I discovered refer to Trafalgar as “the catastrophe of Trafalgar“.
That said, most of their people as is not generally known in Britain, fought very bravely as did many of the Spaniards.
The French have always had a great maritime tradition as alive today as ever.
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Thus, I was recently asked by the president of the Laperouse Society to make enquiries in England about the possibility of working with other museums dedicated to great navigators and explorers with a view to jointly raising European funding.
There are numerous historical replicas built and building in France, maybe we could involve the French in one of our Pickle nights?
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I still love boat building.
I was super fit in my boat building and dinghy racing days, sadly I am going soft here in the Tarn ~ I must go down to the sea again…
I am being asked to helm a Wayfarer at the World Championship this year and am worrying that I’m not fit enough to cope.
I stopped sailing dinghies (mostly Laser) 4 years ago…
I wouldn’t mind a dinghy for day cruising and to keep fitter but my days of winning at national and International level are history.
A winter capsize from a Laser at Plymouth taught me that!

I’ll be in England end of May and most of June, after a brief stay in S Brittany (Loire Atlantic).
The general quality of life here in France is wonderful, the French work hard and know how to party and play, seem to like me and lots of people say “why would you ever want to go back?“

The frame alone will cost some £500.00

The painting as you can see from previous blog entries is progressing steadily.

My intention in the background is to show a busy scene, a lot of activity, a lot of life.

Unlike many marine painters, I am not shy of including people going about their daily tasks.

I think this could be partly because I am facinated by working people and partly thanks to my excellent professional training as an artist and Art Photographer.

I am some times reminded when I see  would be struggling artists (with whom I have much sympathy and always try to encourage) of John Constable’s amusing if cruel remark about self taught artists, roughly he said, ‘when I see a  self taught artist I am aware he was taught by a very ignorant person…’

Moving back to less  controversial ground, some of this work is produced wet on wet, in this case a recent example is the way the sea is painted.

There will be more work on the sea,  however the basic underlying painting is now in place showing a calm day and swell from the South West while the breeze has backed to North West as indicated by the craft shown sailing and will later be further indicated as the sea surface is completed.

At other times, particularly now detail is beginning to be added, I have to wait for paint to dry.

You can seen the beginnings of fine detail, rigging and other delicate art work appearing and maybe begin to guess how the finished art work will appear?

There are still many many hours of work before this marine painting which has also to be an historic document is completed, for example the Minerve has no gun ports yet.

There will also be some surprises yet to show, in this painting when finished…

We can though begin to see some of the crew of Minerve and the crew of Nelson’s boat and what they are about including a marine guard and some of the crew drawn up to receive Nelson, none of the figures though are as yet finished.

Each figure will be a personality, clothing, hair styles etc all have to be as correct for the period as possible.

The plan is to include much fine detail but arrange this marine painting to view well from any distance thus making it a very worthy addition to any collection of fine paintings.

I have a number of copies of portraits of Horatio Nelson and intend he will be recognisable as a figure in the stern sheets of the longboat.

The intention is to record the day Nelson transferred from HMS Captain, a 74 gun ship of the line (middle background) to HMS Minerve a frigate, French built.

Of the occasion, Nelson wrote to his wife, don’t worry, I am off on a special mission but it is not dangerous.

Little did Nelson know the adventures that lay ahead included him almost being captured.

Such was the dangerous life lead by so many men during the Revolutionary and  Napoleonic Wars…

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What is the purpose and future for this marine painting of a bygone age?

I learnt so much about the Georgian navy back in the 1990’s when I had the unique privilege of working for HMS Victory so it seems a pity not to share, use and enjoy that experience.

This picture of Nelson started life as a sketch I drew one evening in 1998 at the Royal Plymouth Corinthian Yacht Club while thinking through ideas for a scene from the voyage of the French navigator and discoverer Laperouse, at Botany bay, a painting I expect to produce this year.

Much more recently a friend and fellow painter, Chris Boddington suggested adapting the scene along the lines we now see.

It was a useful suggestion because The Trafalgar Collection, owned for the past 15 or so years by 2 gentlemen in London is now being offered for sale, prices from £10,000.00, and they asked if I might paint a  more scenes to add to the collection.

I also have a second version of the renowned “Trafalgar Dawn“, now ready to mark out, the opposite view, from the Combined Fleet…

I don’t yet know the future of this unsold painting however it could be a fine example to show at the exhibition offered me at the European Parliament, a show I have had to put off until next year mostly because of difficulties securing appropriate dates.

On the other hand, if some one makes me an offer I can’t refuse (which happened with the original “Trafalgar Dawn“)…

There is a selection of books we can highly recommend because

A. they feature Gordon Frickers marine painting and

B. they are excellent book (not that we are biased, much), see page

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

The books can be ordered via that page from Amazon.

The original of Trafalgar Dawn was sold about 15 years ago to a private collection however the owner has indicated he is now open to offers.

Offers can be made via Mr. 10% on this web site!

More affordable, Trafalgar Dawn is available as a superb quality numbered, signed, Prestige edition on printed canvas, from page
http://www.frickers.co.uk/prints.html
where it can be ordered 100%  securely using Paypal or by a direct bank to bank transfer.

The new Trafalgar Dawn is in an advanced stage of research and pre sketching following visits to research at Portsmouth and in Paris last December (as mentioned in this blog, early December).
As for

Nelson at Gibraltar, you can follow the development of this painting on this blog.

The painting has evolved from a drawing Gordon Frickers  made one evening in 1998 while in the member’s lounge of the Royal Plymouth Corinthian Yacht Club.

Gordon was a very active member of the Royal Plymouth Corinthian Yacht Club for many years and the club has 2 magnificent marine paintings of his in it’s collection.

One features the Royal Yacht Britannia HRH Queen Elizabeth disembarking, to visit Plymouth, the other shows a typical Spring Series race of the period and is very rich in details.

That original sketch was intended as an idea for a painting of the French navigator and discoverer Laperouse entering Botany Bay.

The Laperouse painting is an other currently under development after a long interval.

Gordon was researching for the Laperouse painting and Nelson at Gibraltar last November at H.M. Hydrographic Office, Taunton,  and another reason he was in Paris and at the Muse de Laperouse, Albi (Laperouse home town).

A friend of his, Chris Boddington former very successful lawyer and a skilled painter in his own right, saw the sketch last summer and suggested it would work well as a painting of Nelson transferring from HMS Captain to HMS Minerve at Gibraltar so guess what?

Since the attached pic was taken, the composition and colouring have advanced significantly.

There will be a new blog entry on this painting of Nelson and Gibraltar  in the next few days.

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Also currently for re sale, given an offer they can’t refuse,  by clients of Gordon Frickers are the following Marine Paintings, several quite famous,  (by the way we should mention, prices often with paintings are the reverse of most cars so re sale prices are likely to be considerably more than the vendors paid or the current price of new paintings direct from the artist):

“H.M. Schooner “Pickle”, carrying the news of the Battle of Trafalgar”

“Nelson’s Column”

“Trafalgar Dawn”

“First Shots, Trafalgar”

“Nelson’s Pickle, first with the news”

“Ferriera” ex “Cutty Sark”, “Last Departure” (mentioned on this blog, 27.01.10)

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Another  email was an invitation to go on a Dutch gallery web site ( for a fee).
The site seems to feature mostly Russian artists, some quite good.
It has no marine artist.
It did have an interesting link to a gallery in California, that set Gordon thinking…
He does not  have a list of galleries which might be worth approaching, should he have one?
Can you recommend any galleries?

Some of these new paintings are already featured on the blog so here is today’s update. 

Subjects for this new marine art include Emigration from Plymouth, the ship Samuel Plimsoll, Nelson at Gibraltar, and Porto Fino at dusk, super yachts.

There is more to come and you can follow the progress of these paintings here over the next few months.

All MUST be complete by April…