The Journey of the Man in the Boat

In 2019 I made a reduction linocut titled The Dreamer for a Printmakers Council Exhibition at London Print Studio.

The exhibition theme was Journeys, and for a little while I contemplated making an image based on the plight of migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats. I just couldn’t do their desperation, plight and bravery justice in such a small image, so I took a left turn and went back to the image of a sole man in a boat from my favourite book jacket of the 1940s – Time Was Away with its stunning design by John Minton.

I imagined his journey if the tide came in while he was still asleep and swept him out to sea…

This reduction linocut titled The Dreamer was an edition of 20 copies. It sold out quickly, so I decided to make a more colourful version which became Cast Adrift. This new version, an edition of 75 and made from 3 plates, was exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 2020, where it also sold out. I used the colours from the original lithographic book jacket from 1948.

I started to receive messages from customers who bought it telling me what it meant to them and realised that it seems to draw out the psychological or emotional state of the observer. Some were convinced it is about death and the afterlife, others that it reflected their meditation practice and gave them a feeling of peace, while others described anxiety at the loss of control they see in the image, and others felt like it was a dream.

Personally I see this as a calming image – life taking you on a journey with the seagulls as guardians looking after you and guiding you through the sea of life.

Since then I’ve taken him on various journeys, imagining where he could end up on his travels.

The first was The Sea Says, a two plate linocut, titled after the Marc Almond song. The sea says “Now Don’t go to pieces – things can’t be so bad, why looking so sad?”

Followed by Beyond the Shallows, a two plate linocut, which sees him heading off from the shore. These linocuts are made from 30x10cm lino which are the offcuts from my square London parks linocuts. I draw in pencil straight onto the lino and build the image up, making it quite an organic process with no preparatory drawing beforehand.

And Island Life, a reduction linocut in and edition of 10 copies, some with a face in the moon, a picture of happiness in solitude.

Followed by a 3 plate version

And then Love Island, a 2 plate linocut made in the summer of 2025 and shown in Crete in November for an exhibition on the theme of Temptation

He’s also popped up in the background of remakes of earlier linocuts such as The Estuary II

And this year I used a similar sea from the original Dreamer linocut in my illustration for Withy Fishing in Craftland by James Fox, published in September 2025

I’ve recently made a 3 colour version of this titled The Fisherwoman which was launched through Rise Art in December 2025. The image is of Sarah Ready who makes the pots and goes fishing for lobster off the Devon coast with them.