4. Cpt. William Bligh 1789 – oil on canvas (21¼" by 29") A portrait in the manner made popular by the French artist Fragonard – but without any cloying romanticism. It is a representation of Bligh at age thirty-four in his expensive new uniform and on his elevation to Post Captain (Captain without a command). As with most portraits of the day clues to the sitter’s rank, occupation and notoriety become elements in the finished product. Under his hand is a pamphlet advertising the 1789 publication of his Narrative. Its heading is ‘A Voyage to the South Seas.’ Bligh was the only son of a custom’s officer who died soon after Bligh was born. His mother re-married and produced a step-brother who became a pastor and one of Bligh’s greatest defenders. Bligh was a talented man of little means who greatly desired fame and fortune. His book sold well and made a tidy profit. His wife Betsy came from the Isle of Man.

5. Fletcher Christian RN. 1787 – oil on canvas (25" by 32½") This is a portrait of Christian in a dress coat and unusually holding a cutlass instead of the mandatory chart or a sextant – a clue to the violence that awaits his troubled passage through life? Being well-born Christian was more ambitious of deeds than  position.  This painting shows him at home on the Isle of Man after being selected as a midshipman on the Bounty. He was twenty-seven a little spoilt and enigmatic. The style of painting is seventeenth century northern renaissance with its receding background.

6. Anon ... 1792 – oil on canvas (23" by 29") This portrait is of a crewman of the 'Bounty'. As opposed to Peter Heywood he was not born to wealth or position. The Bounty was his first long ocean voyage and while at sea his mother died leaving him without any means or influence.

7. ‘Bounty’ Departs – oil on canvas (24" by 51") Because of the technical difficulty of painting night scenes the task is usually attempted without great enthusiasm. This painting, in its own mediocre way, reminisces with some of J.M.W.Turner’s atmospheric works and shows Bounty under sail and disappearing into the distance. A palette of alizarin reds and cobalt and Prussian blues predominate with touches of four yellows. The rendering of the night sky is mostly by the application of transparent glazes.

8. ‘Bounty’ sails south to the Horn – oil on canvas (22" by 33½") The illustration is a portend to the approach of bad weather and it shows the insignificance of the tiny vessel in the vast southern ocean – as if, as some of the crew thought they were sailing to the precipitous edge of an ancient sea. Small waves break in exactly the same manner as tidal waves and the view of the break in the foreground is a visual clue to what lies in store. Bligh comments in his log, ‘in the afternoon, the sky is much streaked with high wind and I fear the worst.’ How right he was.

9. ‘Bounty’ rounds Cape Horn – oil on canvas (27" by 35") As we gaze though nature’s sunny smile we see her teeth fully barred ... and, as any sailor will testify ‘to be at the mercy of the sea and to survive is to be born again.’ So is the purpose of this work using warm darks to indicate the infinite depths of the southern ocean – and warm greens show the hopelessness of the situation as the waves rush up to block the light. In his ‘snowstorm at sea’ Turner painted his maelstroms by joining sky and water and all but obliterating the ship. Here and in ‘Bounty’s’ launch from Tofua to Timor’ the vessels are quite clearly depicted, hopefully without the sense of peril being diminished. (In bad weather fires were sensibly banned so hot food was rarely available to he crew – or the many injured sailors on board Bounty. The ship is rigged with minimum sail fore and aft and the wind is from the starboard quarter. After three freezing weeks Bligh finally gives the order to come about and sets a course for Capetown.)

10. Capetown – oil on canvas (17" by 20") The soft and airy treatment of primary colours gives a welcome security to a battered Bounty as she sits at anchor in Capetown harbour. She lies high in the water as she is yet to take on the coal and timber ballast in preparation for the next stage of her journey. To haul casks on board the crew used a parbuckle – they looped ropes around the barrel and rolled it up the ship’s side. Bligh dined ashore with the Governor.

11. Bligh (Adventure Bay) – oil on canvas (21" by 25½") A self-confident and self-assured Bligh steps ashore in a landscape with a European feel. That was the manner of the early explorer's description of Tasmania as rendered to the imagination of those at home. And such is the purpose of this illustration, as separate from the previous example – an English oak dwells precariously on a mythical promontory. Bligh planted some apple seeds before departing no doubt recognising the suitability of the soils and climate. Today of course Tasmanians   well appreciate the results of his augury.

12. Adventure Bay Tasmania – oil on canvas (29" by 38")  Bright and sparkling colour relief is my tone for this high-key work. After a long, cold and dark run along the roaring forties the crisp security of a sheltered bay in southern Tasmania beckons. The pale fresco like colours contrast dramatically with the menacing dark forms of the transient sailors.  

13. ‘Bounty’ crosses Matavai reef – oil on canvas (28" by 33¾") When an ocean crosses a reef it rises up and forms breaking waves thus indicating to the alert sailor the razor sharp dangers that lurk beneath his ship. In this illustration Bounty slides through a break in the reef to enter the safety of Matavai bay. But as the illustration demonstrates with only sail and a tiny rudder is a dangerous procedure. There were no second chances. The Bounty rides high aft and the ocean occupies almost two thirds of the picture its masts disappearing as her stern lifts on top of the following wave.

14. ‘Bounty’ enters Matavai Bay, Otaheite – oil on canvas (29½" by 71") This large canvas attempts an allegory with the sunrise the beginning in the symbolic sense and a beginning of a visit in the real sense; it is also the beginning of the end as Bligh was to discover. This type of sunrise, sunset – beginning, end, transition was immensely popular in the eighteenth century where night was known as ‘a blind man’s holiday.’ The format is deliberately long and narrow to show the canoes coming from distant shores to welcome the strange visitors. Soon the natives will be swarming the decks of the Bounty. The simple style is in the manner of Cook’s travelling artist Webber but without his inclination for painting the locals as well built Grecian warriors accompanied by voluptuous Rubenesque damsels.

15. Otahitie (with Baroque decoration) – oil on canvas (29½" by 38½") An early European view of a tropical paradise – pre-Gauguin and without his sensual golds and browns and relying instead on composition and reflection to describe the allure of this contented paradise. Still a slightly European backdrop but coconut palms line the stream instead of elms and oak. Contrast this with the perils of rounding Cape Horn and the hypothesis of the siren like lure of the island becomes quite believable.

16. Otahitian dancer – oil on canvas (14" by 18") The ‘heiva’ was preformed in theatres in London and other European cities by dancers imitating what they thought were the movements of the dance. Likewise on the same ‘bill’ were examples of dances of the Hottentots and other exotic entertainments. These were but pale imitations of the reality. Here the illustration attempts to show what was the true joy of the dance.

40. The Feast Ashore  – oil on canvas approx 30" by 45" After a few days the crew are invited ashore for a feast, the usual dancing and good times.

17. ‘Bounty’ anchored off Point Venus – oil on canvas (28" by 33¾") A Canaletto style composition with the low foreground and vast sky. It was a style initiated by eighteenth century Venetian painters for atmosphere rather than design (they felt little need to crowd their perfect skies). The clear unpolluted water and the clean unpolluted minds and bodies of the people as they frolic on the shore and in the sea provides the contrast to the ship’s dark menace that stains the bay with the artificiality of what Rousseau described as the 'unnatural structure and artificiality of European society.' A high value Prussian blue begins to invade some of these Otahitean scenes as they  require a different palette.

18.‘Bounty’ aground at Oparee – oil on wooden panel (33" by 48") Late afternoon and Bounty is aground. She sits high on sand while the ship’s boats gather the anchors and row them to deeper water in a frantic effort to refloat her. There is no other transport home! As the sun sets so does Bounty settle in the sand. Later Bligh suggests incompetence ... or even sabotage. The painting is as soft as the consequences are brutal. Turner once exclaimed when criticised for the use of black, ‘if I had blacker paint I would paint blacker sails – as black is the colour of death.’

19. ‘Bounty’ departs Tahitie – oil on canvas (25" by 36") Another canvas using the low classical foreground and symbolic sky where the figures feature as players in an imagined event – this event being the impending departure of Bounty.There is an atmosphere of sadness as an earnest Bligh explains to Chief Tynah his orders and his duty. They are the dominant elements of the scene. The water looks as languid and inviting as would a warm bath to an Eskimo ... the islanders take their daily swim while a necklace of coconut palms separates the lagoon and the sky. Goethe in his ‘theory of colour’ describes yellow as the predominant colour of the middle distance – a notion borrowed here.

22.Mutiny on HMS.’ Bounty’ (with decoration) – oil on wooden panel(36" by 60") As the first rays of a fiery dawn transverse the deck Bligh is brought up in his nightshirt with his hands tightly bound. Most of the crew are content to stand by and watch the interaction between the protagonists. Christian shouts, ‘Hold your tongue sir, or you are dead this instant.’ These next few moments will determine the course of the rest of their lives and the realisation makes some unsure, some bold, but causes the alarmed majority to huddle in groups so far away from the action as to appear separate – but still within earshot. A vacant space in the center of the panel is there as a reminder of the gulf that had developed in the relationship between Bligh and Christian. The painting is in the neo-classical style of an operatic tableau with the main actors positioned for maximum effect.

23. Bligh is cast adrift – oil on wooden panel (36" by 60") When tragedy occurs in the middle of a calm green tropical sea the words ‘like a painted ship upon a painted ocean’ spring into the mind as if, in some contradictory way the fierceness of human behaviour could only happen in the stillness of fixed colours in setting paint, or on an artificial surface. Thus in such stillness (green being the colour of peace and clam) began a chain of events that would culminate in death – by illness in Batavia, by drowning on the Pandora, hangings at Portsmouth – and a bloody massacre on Pitcairn. Today there is a preoccupation with the subject of the painting filling the picture or touching the edges of the frame. The grand manner saw the subject reduced to a smaller element in a larger scene that otherwise hides clues to the narrative (here the discarded pot plants, circling sharks and distant storm).

24. ‘Bounty’s’ launch from Tofua to Timor – oil on wooden panel (36" by 60") The enormity of the task, the desperate nature of their situation and the insignificance of their plight to an uncaring ocean is the preoccupation of this scene. Wet, cold and perpetual motion in an open box was the fate of those clinging to the Bounty’s launch. In construction the picture is based on a centralised dark and bottomless well. The action, like a whirlpool, gathers momentum as it drags at the edges of the picture. Overlaying this is a geometric construction of triangles and parallel lines as if to show that even in chaos nature has a design or an order. Still there is little relief for the eye ... and deliberately so as there was precious little relief for the sailors! Foam streaks the surface but there are no waves breaking. Bligh struggles with the tiller in an attempt to turn the boat into the threatening swell.

25. Bligh arrives Coupang, Timor – oil on wooden panel (36" by 60") Giving no hint of the perils of his passage the proud Bligh stands erect as the launch sails into ‘civilisation.’ This was the London idealised version and here Bligh could as well be sailing into a Dutch or English port. In reality two or three square rigged ships did stand at anchor in the busy Coupang harbour on that day but Bligh’s men were in such a perilous state they could hardly lift themselves to see over the gunwales – and thereby bear any witness to their salvation

26. ‘Bounty’ searches for a home – oil on canvas (23½" by 35") Sliding away over the top of a distant sea the mutineers began the long search for anonymity and a distant paradise. The darkness of the close up waves and the strange reflecting light indicates the vessel could well spend eternity sailing in circles – a thought widely held in Europe where to abandon duty was to abandon hope. Again the blackness of the rigging is not encouraging.

27. HMS.’Bounty’ set alight – oil on wooden panel (36" by 60") An attempt at the difficult fire, moon and water juxtaposition that was a popular test of skill for painters during the late eighteenth century. Pitcairn’s distinctive outline is silhouetted on the horizon. For the painting’s structure the fire takes the soot and embers aloft before their gravity force them down thus forming the arc I use to tie together the major elements of the picture. The spectators are, as usual with fire watches, undemonstrative and hypnotised by the flames

28. Mauatua (Isabella) Christian’s girl – oil on canvas (14" by 18") This intimate portrait seeks to be of a vision only a lover holds in his mind. There is little evidence Fletcher Christian was ever deeply in love with anyone but himself – but then again that is supposedly a prerequisite for the real thing. The cloth that drapes the girl’s glistening coconut scented body is woven with European colours. A gift from Christian.

29. Fletcher Christian Pitcairn – oil on canvas (21½" by 28") A wiser, less assured Christian stares out from this canvas. The symbolic curtain stands ready to be drawn on his life thus allowing the painter to create the corollary to the first portrait where a door waits to be opened. The eighteenth century loved such visual clues.

30. Day of the massacre (with decoration) – oil on canvas (24" by 32") In an unusual portrayal every device is employed to accentuate the violence of Christian’s death – and a very unsettling vision. Strong images of good and evil are presented with no clear winner. Is Christian’s soul destined for heaven or hell? Is he a villain or a folk hero? Moorish decoration is used to suggest of an infidel’s grip on his soul. Angels tentatively descend from a star struck sky – a contradiction in the Islamic religion that excludes any depiction of the human form. But it is all only a legend flirting with reality – and as you see his body you also see blood. What is described in paint is an execution rather than a murder and the executioners have since moved on seeking their next victim.

31. Capt. Mathew Folger arrives Pitcairn – oil on canvas (22" by 25") Folger was the American who discovered the mutineer’s hideaway on Pitcairn. The illustration describes this meeting and shows Folger in his American captain’s coat leaning out from the gunwales of his ship, the whaler Topaz.

32. Cpt. Ewd. Edwards – oil on canvas (18" by 22") Body language gives the lie to Captain Edward Edward’s true character. His intention was to appear as he does in this painting – and he was certainly not averse to bouts of long posturing. Although the victim of a mutiny himself in truth he was weak, bureaucratic and always imagined he was unfairly treated – thus giving himself justification for treating others badly. His cheerless life was to end in an asylum.

33. HMS. ’Pandora’ breaking up – oil on wooden panel (36" by 60")Today the wreck lies scattered about Endeavour Straits (now known as Torres Straits) – as Bligh at the time predicted it would. As a sailor Edwards was not in the class of Cook or Bligh, a failing he attempted to redress by flogging his crew more often. Eventually not even this would save him and this picture shows Pandora sinking after being holed by one of the hundreds reefs dotting this narrow passage. Edwards was not one to go down with his ship but one of the first to save himself. His boat, with sail hoisted, can be seen disappearing towards the horizon. Over twenty souls perished in the wreck with some of the mutineers being dragged down by their chains. This panel shows the scene at sunrise after a night of fearful terror. The stern of Pandora with its shattered windows stares, like the face of some doomed creature, over a scene of panic and urgency that it is powerless to prevent. It is metamorphosing to become the tomb for those many still trapped inside. In ancient parlance this is a ‘closed’ picture as it tries to force the viewer into the scene by employing a tunnel like structure where the eye is forced to restlessly roam. There is little opportunity of escape.

34. Mutineers return – oil on canvas (18" by 14") As today’s arrival of the star at a movie premiere would draw crowds so in 1792 did the return of the mutineers. But then they were booed – for their crime was as much against the people as it was against the Navy. Whereas they robbed the navy of but a single ship ... they robbed the people of a dream, a dream of an attainable, contaminated paradise.

35. Portsmouth 1792 – oil on canvas (29¾" by 39") Home of the Channel Fleet under the command of the Earl of Bridport (Lord Hood). His flagship HMS Duke with the single topmast is the large first rate on the left while HMS Brunswick the vessel designated to host the executions is anchored off her starboard bow. It is the dawn of the day of the executions... In Dickensian terms ‘It came coldly looking like a dead face out of the sky, the moon and the stars, turning pale and dying as if creation’s only purpose was its journey into death’s dominion.’

39. Some Dire Consequences – oil on canvas (32" by 48") In 1792 Naval executions were conducted by way of strangulation where the victims were hoisted from the deck on tackle attached to the ends of the yards. The ropes were pulled by their shipmates. In the case of the Bounty mutineers the prisoners are summoned up. As they emerge from the darkness below they look around, blinking, startled at the size of the crowd, which in turn, roars and shouts to each other then strain around corners, over heads, under awnings, to get a sight of the condemned. People in boats lay their hands on the shoulders of the people before then, fathers lift children and loved ones to a view, they stand on tiptoe, get upon gunwales, stand upon next to nothing, to see every inch of those condemned.’

36. The Spectre – oil on canvas (22½" by 29") A compendium of Bounty icons join forces in this illustration and again, as Dickens would have it, ‘its victims (here represented by the solitary youth Tom Ellison) repair down the dark highway...’ and at the end waits the angel of death – but in this interpretation it is of rebirth, of emergence, of travelling up into the light. In his bag are the few belongings Ellison is reluctant to leave behind. Such was the unbowed spirit of the mutineers before their execution. Faintly and beneath the rising spectre lurks a far more sinister creature... and for a moment it bars the way – particularly for those whose spirits cannot fly!

37. Breath of Heaven – oil on canvas (15 by 21)‘Without atmosphere a painting is nothing.’ (Rembrant) Another symbolic representation of their transition from one world to another – ‘Mates, I draw closer to the end and I find my life travels in a circle and gets nearer to the beginning.’ (early echoes of T.S.Elliot?) So spoke one of the mutineers before he was hung. Here we accompany Thomas Ellison again and see a way through the ruins of the past to an unknown future and are invited to enter – a common preoccupation now as it was in 1792.

38. Behind the Wave – oil on canvas (22½" by 29") The ghost of the Bounty lurks behind every wave. Here in the peak of a wave off the Amazon delta if we look hard enough we can just make her out. ‘So it was with Christian's fate for within nine years of the discovery of Pitcairn, three different stories were recorded relating to his death; (1) he had become insane and jumped into the sea, (2) he had been murdered by the native men, and (3) he had died a natural death. There were also three accounts of his being seen elsewhere, (1) in the English Lake District, (2) in Plymouth, and (3) in South America...’

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