A striking early work by Scottish contemporary artist Robert Wemyss Innes (b.1964), painted in 1994 and depicting boats on the slipway at St Monans on the Fife coast.
Rather than treating the harbour conventionally, Innes reduces the boats to powerful overlapping forms. A deep blue hull occupies the left of the composition while the large rust-red and orange bow to the right provides its principal focus. Strong vertical elements suggest masts and boatyard structures, while vigorous passages of blue, turquoise, ochre, crimson and deep red give the work an almost abstract intensity.
Details
Artist: Robert Wemyss Innes (Scottish, b.1964)
Title: St Monans: Slipway Sketch #3
Date: 1994
Medium: Mixed media on board
Signature: Signed verso
Artwork size: 30 × 35 cm (11.8 × 13.8 in)
Framed size: 51 × 55 cm (20.1 × 21.7 in)
Verso: Signed and titled handwritten strip reading “R.W. Innes: St. Monans: Slipway Sketch #3. 1994”, together with a typed Robert Innes title label
Condition: Artwork in very good condition. Frame shows handling wear.
Presentation: Mounted, framed and under glass
St Monans and the Fife Coast
St Monans, in the East Neuk of Fife, is a historic fishing village whose harbour, boats and slipways provide a natural subject for Innes's interest in the Scottish landscape and coast. Innes has repeatedly returned to Scotland's harbours, islands and coastal landscape, with St Monans appearing within his wider body of work.
About the Artist
Robert Wemyss Innes was born in Kirkcaldy, Fife, in 1964. He studied at Leith School of Art before attending Glasgow School of Art, where published biographical material records tutors including James Robertson and Barbara Rae. Innes graduated in 1994, the same year as the present work, and subsequently established himself as a full-time painter.
His career has included exhibitions with the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, Roger Billcliffe Fine Art, Frames Gallery and galleries elsewhere in Scotland, London and France. His work is represented in collections including Kirkcaldy Art Gallery and Stirling University.
