Tony attended Falmouth School of Art, and afterward worked
for local builders and decorators. He was also a sign writer who was
commissioned by the RNLI to paint names on their lifeboats, one of which was
the ill-fated Penlee boat, the ‘Solomon Browne’. On 19th December,
1991 she went to the rescue of the crew of the M.V. ‘Union Star’, which had
engine failure during a severe gale in Mount’s Bay and was blown onto rocks at
Boscawen Cove. All persons aboard both vessels were lost, despite heroic
efforts of the lifeboat crew, who managed to get four onto their craft before
she succumbed to the waves. The ‘Union Star’ capsized onto rocks west of Tater
Du Lighthouse.
In 1978 Tony Warren established himself as a professional
artist/painter, specializing in marine subjects. His studio was not far from Falmouth
Customs House, and it became a meeting place for locals who shared a common
interest in the sea. He worked in a variety of media, including oils, but his
forte was watercolours. Tony had a love of the sea and of all kinds of vessels
that he portrayed as he saw them or learned about them from authentic sources.
He didn’t always get things structurally right concerning the ships and boats
he painted, but he captured atmospheric moments sometimes indicative of the
time of day, the nature of the weather, the strength and direction of wind, and
various moods of the sea.
One of his paintings is appropriately displayed at Falmouth
Fire Station, namely, Blaze on the ‘Tulla’,
which shows firemen dealing with a fire on the ‘Tulla’, while the lifeboat stands by. Another of his paintings, an
acrylic on board, namely the Fire Crew
Attending a Blaze, is at the Truro Fire Station.
Tony passed away in 1994 at the age of 64, but his paintings
and prints continue to give joy to their many owners, including me.
Links
Tony Warren’s Sketchbook
Your Paintings – Blaze on the ‘Tulla’
Beaufighter Paintings – The ‘Lock Ryan’ Schooner
Penlee Lifeboat Disaster
Solomon Browne Remembered
Falmouth School of Art
Customs House, Falmouth
4 comments:
Hello Bill, thats more lovely work. I love watercolours, and actually have a 'dawb' myself occaisionally, landscapes being my favourite.
Have you seen the othe WestWightPotter on e-bay, she's a fifteen and the number is 331253254013, no one has shown any interest bid-wise yet, and she's up for the second time.
Richard,
She's a 'C' Type WWP, similar to 'Sandpiper'.
She requires a fair amount of attention.
Her centreplate support may need beefing up.
Cheers,
Bill.
Hello Bill, as you say, if the rest is anything to go by, she'll need attention by the centre plate case.
Tony was such a nice gentleman , always so friendly and happy to chat to us whenever we visited him in his studio in Falmouth . My father in law asked him to paint the beautiful schooner " The Flower of the Fal "of which his father was the Captain......and you're right Bill, in saying how he could capture the moods of the sea and the weather .
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