Sea life artist Giles Ward is renowned for his distinctive sea life inspired paintings. He is often asked how he seeks new and fresh inspiration for his subject. After a recent trip to Marseille, he gave us an insight into his working methods and how he finds inspiration.
As dawn breaks over Marseille’s Old Port, the city’s celebrated fish market springs to life with a ritual that has changed little over generations. Fishermen unload the morning’s catch, traders arrange glistening displays of sea bass, red mullet and octopus, and chefs mingle with locals in search of the freshest seafood. It is a scene of commerce, tradition and colour—and, for the British artist Giles Ward, an irresistible source of inspiration.
“It isn’t simply about painting fish,” he says. “It’s about observing light and movement. Every morning the market feels different. The colours shift and every catch has its own character. The harbour and fish market in Marseille is famous for its displays of landed fish, fresh off the local trawlers. It’s a popular draw for locals and tourists alike, with every day throwing up different displays.”
For an artist whose work is rooted in the natural world, Marseille offers a striking contrast to Britain’s coastline. Here, the Mediterranean light lends an extraordinary brilliance to even the most familiar subjects. Giles has built his reputation through richly textured paintings that elevate everyday marine subjects into compelling contemporary works. Fish become studies in pattern and colour; shells and crustaceans reveal unexpected sculptural qualities. Although grounded in careful observation, his paintings are never merely descriptive. They seek instead to convey the energy and vitality of their subjects.
“As with all my pieces I try to photograph the fish as fresh as possible to try and capture the brightness and colour. On this occasion I not only recorded the fish as they lay in their fishermen’s trays but also took several home to photograph. There’s a wonderful haphazard freedom to where the fish lay, all mingled together and I have tried to capture that in a series of painterly ‘sketches’ that I have done. In these I try to draw out that mish-mash of shapes, patterns, fins and scales. Even the chalk board labels announcing the names and prices of the fish I find work as a wonderful backdrop to the fish themselves.”
In a city where the sea has shaped daily life for more than two millennia, Marseille’s fish market continues to offer nourishment of a different kind, a reminder that artistic inspiration is often found not in the extraordinary, but in the patient observation of the everyday.
Giles’s series of ‘Marseille Fish Market’ paintings will be displayed later this year. But available NOW for a limited time are a small select series of painterly sketches. These are oil and acrylic on board and are framed and ready to hang.
The first ones to be released are available here:
oil & acrylic
oil & acrylic
oil & acrylic
oil & acrylic
