Figureheads exhibition at Art Pistol

Work by Kilcreggan artist Elanor Carlingford is featured in a solo show at a Glasgow art gallery this month.

Figureheads is inspired by retired sea captain William James Caren, a friend of Eleanor’s father whose schooner Gold Seeker had a figurehead (right) on the bow which was left to a Maritime Museum on the Isle of Man when the ship was broken up.

“This very gratifying discovery sparked in me, not only the desire to visit the figurehead with which I had a vague connection, but to find others,” she said.

“I did so in Amsterdam in the maritime museum and later in Sydney in the maritime museum.

“Figureheads embodied the spirit of the vessel and the crew invariably felt an aura of protection from this, and an element of safeguarding in harsh seas, and on the homeward voyage.

“Often the figurehead was carved by the loving hands of the crew themselves, these carvings holding great significance to the men whose covetous protection over them could be fierce.

“They would not let the figurehead founder.”

Eleanor says she had ‘enormous fun’ drawing the huge figures resolutely staring forwards: “The adjective “crude” really does apply to many of these blocky figures.

“Inevitably, they tower above you, they are imposing, they never deviate, or desert their position.”

The exhibition is at Art Pistol, 11 James Morrison Street Glasgow G1 5PE until June 28 – more details are available online. 

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