'Learning to Fish'

Oil painting on canvas by Grant McSherry. 845 mm x 690 mm.

Granddad took me on my very first fishing trip to the wharf at Port Ohope when I was just four years old. I remember being so fascinated with the Herring I caught that it came home and remained on the doorstep until I was finally convinced to allow the fish to be returned to the ocean.

That was the start of an interest in fishing that I shared with Granddad, Dad and later on, my brother Mark. We all spent many hours fishing together over the years to come.

Forty something years after that first fishing trip to the wharf at Port Ohope, Mark taught his kids to fish from the same wharf. I enjoyed watching Mark passing on the skills we were taught by Granddad to Josh & Charlotte and that experience became the basis for this oil painting.

The day before what would have been Granddad’s 100th birthday I began working on this painting with a view to a change of my usual subject matter along with a different approach to my brush painting style. At exactly the same time the Rena oil spill disaster was unfolding, and this very piece of coastline came under threat from the tarry black mess that had been carelessly and apparently criminally spilled into our pristine waters.

I felt I had plenty of reasons for this oil painting and I enjoyed creating the work, which was well outside my usual genre.

Original painting 'Learning to fish': oil on canvas
Original painting size: 845mm x 690mm.