Guest Speaker

Gordon Frickers, best known as a Marine Artist, noted too for poetic landscapes, has proven a popular, entertaining guest speaker.

Gordon Frickers, portrait
Gordon Frickers, photo courtesy of Anthony Osmand-Jones.
[This Gordon Frickers, art signature is on all my more recent paintings]

Gordon Frickers has an engagingly interactive, light hearted, immensely knowledgeable and often surprising style as a speaker and lecturer.

Examples include, he gave a series of adult winter evening classes, at the Swarthmore Centre, Plymouth, on Marine Painting and another on “Nelson as a Role Model”.

Both were so successful the entire classes asked for more.

Gordon can speak knowledgeably on many subjects including various forms of painting, art history, marine art, and wine villages of France.

He has entertained as variously as Round Table Clubs, Yacht Clubs and taught primary children opening his talks with lines like “how would you like to know something, not difficult, about drawing and painting that your parents don’t know?

His style is approachable, empathetic, directly involving the audience when possible, the talks usually illustrated often with examples of originals, he has an international perspective.

 

You can reach him via our Contact Us Page.

On-board Cunard Line’s flagship  Queen Elizabeth 2, as a “Celebrity Guest Speaker” he was described in the daily news as “The Renowned Marine Artist“.

He has been interviewed many times on radio particularly by Gordon Sparks of Radio Devon.

A further example, appeared on National TV  interviewed in Nelson’s cabin on board HMS Victory speaking about the commander of the famous if unlikely named  HMS Pickle [the Trafalgar Messenger] for “The Boats The Built Britain” series.

That was a British award-winning documentary television series directed by Lawrence Walford, produced by Form Films for the BBC and presented by sailor and writer Tom Cunliffe.

Painting the launch of JST Lord Nelson,
Gordon Frickers painting the launch of JST Lord Nelson, BBC filming

 

The following extract is an example of how people felt after being with him:

NI Logo

Nautical Institute: South West of England Branch

Art and the Mariner

Guest Speaker
L-R Members Captain Paul Willerton, Richard Walker
and artist Gordon Frickers

TS 'Tectona' off the Eddystone Light house
TS ‘Tectona’ off the Eddystone Light house

The South West Branch of the Nautical Institute were privileged to welcome as guest speaker to its January meeting, Gordon Frickers, a marine artist of considerable talent and reputation who commenced his career as an artist in the early nineteen eighties.
Today he paints many marine subjects including historical vessels, racing dinghies, commercial ships and warship.

Gordon’s interest in marine subjects began in his infancy.
He later trained as a boat builder, learning his craft at Falmouth Technical College.
He still practices his skills in construction, maintenance and restoration of craft.
His love for boats and ships can be seen in the art work which he produces.
He claims to ‘paint for people who really understand the sea and the unique qualities of ships and boats’.
Nothing better exemplifies this than his famous painting the “Roaring Forties” commissioned by Sir Robin Knox Johnson showing the “Suhaili” in storm conditions.
More recently his involvement with the Trafalgar 200 celebrations and his paintings “Trafalgar Dawn” and “Urgent Dispatches” show his talent in being able to recreate historical events with accuracy and sense of atmosphere.
Of local interest is Gordon’s painting of “Tectona“, the former training vessel of Plymouth’s School of Navigation.

Gordon provided the meeting with a short history of marine art which covered three and a half thousand years.
It commenced with paintings illustrating the Egyptian Pharaoh royal barges and ended with contemporary marine artists such as Thomas Summerscales and John Stobart.
Gordon also illustrated how some of his present work has involved commissions to paint modern ships which he declared “have character”.
A fine example is his painting of the cableship “Nexus” produced for the boardroom of Coe Metcalf.

Unlike photography, artists have the freedom to use colour, to leave in or leave out what is observed and create a canvas which captures mood and character.
It was interesting to learn that the English painter JMW Turner who loved to visit Plymouth and Devon was one of Gordon’s early heroes and an inspiration to him when he was a student.
Art is about communication feeling and the recording of events and issues of the day.
People at the beginning of the early part of the twenty first century are concerned about climate change – a subject which Gordon described as being a fabulous subject for artistic development.

Those who attended the meeting could not fail to be impressed with the expertise, skill and knowledge of Gordon Frickers – and the quality of his artistry.
It was a great evening, enjoyed by all who attended.
For those who were unable to attend, a well maintained and interesting website is provided by the artist and can be found at http://www.frickers.co.uk

“All artists are special but in different ways”

 

Contributed by:   Paul G Wright FNI

Contact US ~

T / M: + 33 (0)6 10 66 19 26 or ‘gordonfrickers’ on whatsapp.

E: gordon at frickers.co.uk

E~ Important ! please substitute ‘@’ for ‘at’: artistfrickersatgmail.com

[This Gordon Frickers, art signature is on all my more recent paintings]