Tributes paid after death of renowned maritime artist, 87

Tributes have been paid to Colin Verity, 87, an internationally known marine artist who died last Friday at his home in East Yorkshire.

Mr Verity, who painted numerous commissions for shipping companies and organisations, has work in collections the world over. His work, both in oil and watercolour, captured the huge variety of vessels from the 1800s through to the 1960s, mainly the era of steam, until they began to assume their modern shape and in his words become “ungainly contraptions”.

He had an ongoing commission with the Sultan of Oman for whom he had been painting a series of historic sailing craft.

Born in Darwen, Lancashire, in 1924, Mr Verity was educated at the city’s Malet Lambert School, where a teacher called Gussie Cooper encouraged him to draw.

Given worms as a subject he decided to draw a part of a ship in the top corner of the page instead.

Summoned by the teacher, he thought he was about to be caned – and was surprised to be presented with a proper drawing pad. Holidays were coming up and he was told to go down to the docks and fill it with drawings of ships.

Mr Verity went home, told his father and was duly packed off down to the docks.

Friend Tony Finn, a co-organiser of a major retrospective of his work in 2003 at Hull Maritime Museum, got to know Mr Verity when he regularly exhibited at the Ferens Winter Exhibition and owns several of his paintings.

He said: “He was a lovely man, very knowledgeable, an excellent painter and an excellent modeller and someone who was very easy to talk to. I feel privileged to have known him; I loved his style of painting.

“Colin was definitely part of the Hull marine tradition but he was obviously known internationally and I think deservedly so.”

Retired keeper of maritime history in Hull, Arthur Credland, who helped organise the retrospective, said Mr Verity’s work would live on as an important record of shipping in the late 20th and early 21st century: “He could paint the basics of a picture while giving a lecture on how to do it. He had this amazing grasp of capturing the whole ship and sitting it in the sea which many artists fail to do.

“He also had great enthusiasm for railways, both real and models and when he lived in a big house at Meaux he had a large track set up in his studio, with models zooming around his easel, palates and stacks of brushes.”

Sonya Verity, his second wife, said her husband had died suddenly while having lunch: “We’d only just come back from the Isle of Wight on a visit to see his sister. In a way he was full of beans, although he did have a heart problem.

“Although he was in a wheel chair he was still working at his easel last Friday morning.

She added: “He had an absolutely wonderful sense of humour and the most incredibly active brain.

“Every crossword we ever did he could always give you every answer about shipping. He had a wonderful brain which has been inherited by his son Roderick, who is also an artist but paints the stars of moto GP.”

An RAF pilot during World War Two, Mr Verity returned to East Yorkshire where he became principal architect at Humberside County Council. He was married to his wife Stella Smale for 50 years, with whom he had a son and three daughters, before her death, marrying Sonya Raven-Ainley in 2003.

Mr Verity was elected a member of the Royal Society of Marine Artists in 1974, and more recently a life member. He was also a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects, a member of the prestigious Fylingdales Group of Artists and president of Hornsea Art Society.

Work exhibited in 17 countries

Colin Veriity’s work is in collections spread over 17 countries. Clients include HRH the Duke of Gloucester, who attended the 2003 retrospective in Hull, John Betjeman, Lloyds of London and the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich.

He has also exhibited widely in the UK, Canada and United States where he has received two international Maritime art awards for oil painting and one for watercolour.