Status of Original Painting – Private Collection

Size: 12 x 16 3/4 inches

Medium: Watercolour on 300 lb d’Arches

Description:
About 2/3 of this painting is visible in the scan. The painting features two longliners – the one on the left is called Ashley’s Pride – and a modern pleasure craft docked near Cupids, a fishing village located on Conception Bay in Newfoundland. Cupids was the first official English settlement on the island, and was originally known as Cuper’s Cove. John Guy of Bristol located his colony of 39 men there in 1610 under charter from King James the First of England. In 1612 he added 12 women to the colony, and that was followed in 1613 by the birth of the first English child to born in Newfoundland. The colony failed due to persistent opposition of West England fishermen and the destruction caused by raiding pirates. At one point in time, the pirate Peter Easton had to be paid “protection” by the colonists in the form of precious livestock to prevent him from raiding the colony again!