Steve Camps (b.1957) - Oil on board
“Boys Under The Boat”
A compact and characteristically humorous painting by Steve Camps, showing two black whales swimming beneath a three-masted sailing ship. A striped lighthouse stands on the distant shore while the purple sky, bright blue sea and simplified bands of colour give the scene the direct, folk-art quality associated with Camps’s work.
The circular format is especially effective, concentrating the composition into a porthole-like view. The two whales fill the lower half of the painting, their open red mouths and white teeth adding the dry humour suggested by the title, Boys Under The Boat.
Whales, boats and imagined Cornish seascapes form the most recognisable strand of Camps’s work. This small tondo brings those elements together in an appealing and highly distinctive example.
Key Details
Artist: Steve Camps (Cornish, b.1957)
Title: “Boys Under The Boat”
Medium: Oil on board
Support: Board
Signature: Signed lower left
Artwork: 19 cm diameter (7.5 in)
Frame: 26 cm diameter (10.2 in)
Frame: Presented in a circular wooden frame
About the Artist
Steve Camps was born in Cornwall in 1957 and worked as a builder for most of his life. A longstanding collector and dealer in antique pictures and frames, he began painting after retiring in February 2023. Entirely self-taught, Camps quickly developed a distinctive naïve style centred on whales, boats and imagined Cornish coastal scenes.
Represented by Sailors Jail Gallery in Falmouth, his paintings have developed a strong following and earned him the affectionate title “The Prince of Whales”. His unexpected emergence as an artist has attracted national newspaper and television coverage, while his personal story and distinctive marine paintings have also become the subject of a developing film project. His work is recognised for its bold simplicity, dry humour and highly individual maritime imagery.
