Storm Warning - May 2001 by Charles Oakley

Signed and dated lower right facing

From the estate of the artist

Based on Winslow Homer’s ‘Fog warning’, ‘The Gale’ and ‘Weatherbeaten’.

His ancestors’ connection with the sea, drew Charles Oakley to explore seascapes repeatedly. He was fascinated by the work of Winslow Homer, the American artist who spent two years in the tiny fishing village of Cullercoats on the north east coast of Northumbria in the early 1880s. Homer witnessed the heroism of the emergency crews, risking their lives to save fishermen in peril at sea, watched by their women on the shores awaiting news. In his painting, Charles Oakley reproduces Homer’s paintings on either side of an arched corridor that draws the eye towards another distant painting. The challenge of capturing the tiled floor in perspective was a particular recurring theme.