Talented artists to display work at Whitby’s Parkol Marine as part of Fish & Ships Festival

Artists Katie Ventress and Kate Smith will be hosted by the business at its Eskside Wharf boatyard on Church Street, open from 12.30pm until 4.30pm on Saturday (May 18).

Both will be in attendance to meet visitors and discuss their work.

Katie is a talented young blacksmith, skilled in fabricating and welding and many other skills that might be used in the modern shipyard.

Brought-up locally and apprentice as well as college trained as an artist craftsman, Katie puts her talents to use in a more creative direction and her work is often inspired by our local coast and country, taking the form of animals and sea life.

Just like Parkol’s vessels are a modern day reflection of Whitby’s past, helping to keep its history alive, her work is a representation of the land that makes it possible, of the sea’s bounty and the dramatic coast we are situated on.

Kate is a painter with a fine art background whose focus turns, more often than not, to the craftsmen built boats of the Yorkshire coastline, from the old wooden cobles and double-ended beach boats to the new high-tech trawlers for which Parkol are renowned.

Working mainly in thick oil paints applied with a palette knife, her large scale works regularly depict boats of all shapes and sizes in a vivid and contemporary style.

Parkol’s working shipyard is being opened to the public as part of the festival with guided tours showing how they go about their work - there is true sculptural artistry in their boat building, both in the design and fabrication of the boats.

Parkol is one of primary sponsors of the Fish & Ships event and is a key employer in the town.

Established in 1971 the business maintains the tradition of shipbuilding in the town which built one of the world’s most famous vessels - Captain Cook’s Endeavour - only doing so using modern materials and 21st Century techniques and design.