Karen Marshall encountered the gaff rigged ketch Bessie Ellen on a voyage from Fowey to the Canary Islands where the ship was to undergo maintenance and repairs over the winter months. Bessie Ellen left port in dismal weather, on the tail end of a hurricane which eventually resolved into blue skies and calm seas beyond Biscay. As an artist with a a particular interest in the relationship between humans and their environment, Karen found the way that the sailors engaged with Bessie Ellen both moving and visually interesting.
‘ Sailing on Bessie Ellen is a physical and hands on experience and, because we spent so much time on the open sea it was different from anything else I had ever experienced. Atmospheric conditions became hugely important - the freshness of the air after the storm, the closeness and the sparkle of the sky at night, and the ever present sense of our smallness and vulnerability in the vast ocean. Working together to maintain direction and purpose meant each small task, including mending a rip in a sail, or tidying up sheets on the bowsprit, were peculiarly beautiful. Although I kept a visual diary with pen and wash drawings, I chose soft pastel for these paintings because of its physicality, vibrancy and immediacy, and its capacity for suggesting detail, and atmosphere. Rather than focusing on the the physical form of Bessie Ellen I decided to use this opportunity to say something about the experience of sailing on Bessie Ellen at this particular time in her history. For me it’s the small things that are memorable and give us a way into experiencing the power and the glory of the sea, and the skills of the boatbuilders and sailors who work with it.
Karen Marshall artist/ printmaker, was born in 1959 and currently lives in Wensleydale.
Karen has worked in worked for 43 years in roles that have been concerned with, one way or another, the stories of people‘s lives, and her painting and drawing has always reflected her interest in the stories we tell about ourselves and our relationship with our environment and with one another.
Karen’s formal art education includes:
1971-1977 O and A Levels at Ripon Grammar School (SA Smith)
1977-82 College of Ripon and York St John
1992-1994 Leeds College of Art Foundation Course
2018-2021 Hot Bed Press Complete Printmaker and Complete Book Artist
since 2018 she has exhibited work at Hot Bed Press, Salford, Manchester Art Fair, Hebden Bridge Print Fair, North Light Studios Hebden Bridge, West Burton Annual Art Exhibition, Urmston Community Art Trail, and St Thomas’s Church Heptonstall
Her prints and paintings are in private collections in the UK and in Europe
