Pirate Oil Paintings

A pirate painting lives or dies on the weather. A ship in flat light is a diagram; the same ship coming out of mist, or running before a low sun with the sea building behind it, is a picture worth living with. That is the rule this collection is built on.

What is in this collection

Around sixty-five paintings in three groups. Ships at sea is the largest: a chase across open ocean at sunset, a sloop slipping away at twilight, a ghost ship emerging from the mist. Wreck and shore covers a treasure vessel broken on rocky shores and Skull Rock island at low tide. Below deck and ashore holds the quieter scenes, a first mate reading a treasure map by lamplight among them.

Rigging is where these paintings are won or lost, and it is painted as rigging rather than suggested. That is also why they hold up at close range.

How each painting is made

Nothing here is printed. Each canvas is painted in oils after you order it, by an artist working from the reference on the page. The lead time runs in weeks and no two canvases are identical.

You set the dimensions rather than choosing from a fixed list. Three finishes are available: Simple for a clean, even surface, Texture for visible brushwork, and Museum for the heaviest impasto, which suits heavy sea particularly well.

Choosing one for a room

Ships want width and sky. A canvas wider than it is tall gives the sea somewhere to run, and these hang well above a fireplace, a sideboard or a bed. Below-deck scenes are dark and intimate and work better small, in a study or a hallway where someone passes close.

They suit a child's room as readily as a bar, which is unusual. Tell us the wall and we will suggest a proportion.

A ship of your own

A named vessel, a family boat, a scene from a story you want painted properly: tell us and an artist will look at it before anything is agreed. Shipping is free worldwide.