PAT DAVIS REFLECTS ON HIS YEARS OF ARTWORKS AT THE HARBOUR
PAT DAVIS, A LOCAL ARTIST, AIMS TO CREATE A MURAL OF 50 SHIPS VISITING WICKLOW HARBOUR ALONG THE PIER WALL BY THIS SUMMER. HE HAS ALREADY GOT 46 COMPLETE. HE EXPLAINS TO MYLES BUCHANAN WHEN EXACTLY THIS PASSION BEGAN
A LOCAL artist who has been painting pictures of ships visiting Wicklow Harbour along the pier wall aims to complete his 50th painting this summer.
So far 46 of paintings by Pat Davis decorate the harbour wall and Wicklow Municipal District have plans to honour the artistic postman after a proposal from Cllr Paul O’Brien.
Pat’s creations combine two of his greatest loves - ships and art.
He says: ‘As a young lad my big hobby was ship watching, which I still enjoy. I used to draw pictures of ships into my notepad. Then when I got older I started drawing the ships onto paper on location at the harbour. I was quite an independent child and I got to meet quite a few people who would be looking over my shoulder to see what I was drawing.
However, it was a visit of a Greek ship called Eliana to Wicklow Harbour in 1971 which kick-started Pat into starting to paint picture of visiting vessels along the harbour wall. The Eliana used to regularly travel from Casablanca to Wicklow Harbour with cargoes of phosphorus which was used to manufacture fertiliser.
Pat explains: ‘In 1971 the ship had a collision with the north pier on a lovely day and had to stay to get repair work done. A Greek crew member, who was only a little bit older than me, painted the Eliana on the harbour wall. It wasn’t actually regarded very well by the Gardai at the time and they wanted to have words with him. Anyway, the ship departed around a week later and over the years the image became quite rough and began fading away. People had seen me painting boats onto paper while at the harbour and they asked if I would redo the picture. That was around 1976. I asked the local Harbour Master for permission and he gave me the go-ahead. The rest is history.’
Pat sill has plenty of fond memories of heading down to Wicklow Harbour while he was a national school pupil, to visit some of the boats and ships docked in the harbour.
‘You would chat away to the different crews and they would let you walk the gangway. Sometimes we would do their shopping for them. You got to meet people from all sorts of different countries, like the Cape Verde Islands, Poland and the Philippines. We got on very well with them. It was actually through the Eliana that I actually tried spaghetti bolognese for the first time. That was around 1971 as well.’
Pat maintains that there is no particular routine regarding which ships he decides to paint. So far 46 of his paintings decorate the wall.
‘There is no real rule to it, and at the times it is just completely random. However, I do have something in mind for the next four paintings, which will bring me up to 50.’
For his 50th painting, which he hopes to complete around August, Pat is hopeful of reuniting with a couple of grandparents from Avoca and their two grandchildren, who he met at Wicklow Harbour a few weeks before Christmas of 2018.
‘It was a pretty bad day so there weren’t many people around. There were four people admiring my paintings - grandparents and their granddaughter