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Drop The Pilot

Artist Peter Yeomans (1961 - 2007)

DateJanuary 1993

Object number00016831

NamePainting

MediumOil paint, canvas, wood

DimensionsOverall: 1255 x 955 mm, 4.6 kg
Display Dimensions: 1257 x 958 x 57 mm

ClassificationsArt

Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from Peter Yeomans

Terms

DescriptionA framed painting titled 'Drop The Pilot' by artist Peter Yeomans, depicting a pilot boat picking up the pilot from the side of an unidenitifed vessel at night. `Drop The Pilot' was highly commended in the open category of the 1993 P&O Art Awards at the Australian National Maritime Museum.History"Peter Yeomans, a modern marine artist finds it difficult to recreate the past simply "because he wasn't there". What is important are the ships and seascapes of now - to him the refueling of a ship anchored in mid-stream at night can be as visually exciting as exploding ships in paintings of the battle of the Nile. He is just as excited by the last minute of a night yacht race start. Peter grew up in Sydney when everything new and good came through the 'Heads' in ship's cargo holds - technology from Germany, manufactured goods from England, style from France and social ideas from the U.S.A. In those days people knew the names of all of the ships and Sydney Harbour was theatre as newspaper reporters were rowed out to interview important visitors and spread their ideas in the newspaper columns. Drawing has been an integral part of Peter's professional life as a designer and planner for the last 40 years. This shows up in his mastery of the charcoal and pencil drawings in this exhibition. You may be able to substitute novelty or colour for draftsmanship in some aspects of today's modern abstract art but a ship drawn without integrity or with poor draftsmanship will in a flash disappear down Davy Jones' locker. Peter is no stranger to the sea as he has sailed all of his adult life; from VJ's to international dingy racing in the U.K., Canada and the U.S.A.; ocean racing in East and West Australia, the English Channel, Fiji, Vanuatu and cruising the Coral and Aegean seas. His 11 ton, 32 ft timber cutter THYSTLE enables him to go to sea and stay at sea to watch ships-seascapes and skies and then become a floating studio when in harbour.There is nothing like being a deckhand to get close to your subject. His charcoal and pencil drawings can be catergorised as tonalism-something like the work of top photographers who do their best work in sepia or black and white. It's the tonal values of a painting that either makes or stops it from being remembered. Peter describes his method of work as doing lots of small drawings, to capture moments of time or place beyond the satisfaction of photography - when they are enlarged you can see the pleasure and the change involved when working on a larger scale. To Peter, nightime at sea is wonderful, with only the essentials to concentrate on, with very little distraction to one's eye and thoughts and the navigation tasks heighten the experience. His oil paintings as yet lag behind the expertise of his drawings, yet here in time he might break through into something new, the unique experience of the night at sea. But, who said it is only marine artists who yearn for ships at sea, for it also beckons to the rest of us marooned on land— to run away to sea for freedom and adventure." - Harry Stein, November1991Significance"Well for many reasons, I have been fascinated for fifty years by the frail man crossing the gap from the Pilot Boat to the ship, having watched the' Captain Cook and the later Pilot Cutters doing their task almost every day. So far I have done about seven finished works on the subject. I think the Pilot Cutter procedure might well be replaced by aerial transfer or audio visual control, and so another human element is eliminated." - Peter Yeomans, 1993