The Last Three Seine Fishing Boats

Paintings, ceramics and textiles inspired by the seine fishermen of Ferryside will go on show at Carmarthenshire County Museum.

The exhibition by artist Dorothy Morris will open on July 2.

She lives in Ferryside and her husband is one of the few remaining licensed seine fishermen now operating on the Tywi estuary. Her richly coloured paintings record this ancient method of fishing and her textiles and ceramics have been inspired by life on the estuary.

Dorothy Morris said: “This exhibition was inspired by the realisation that there are now only three licensed seine net fishing boats left on the estuary. My husband has been one of the crew for over 30 years and sometimes we have been treated to a family supper of fresh sewin caught here on the Tywi.

“As this activity has played such a huge role in my life, I believe it was important for me to record this old traditional technique, especially since it is now in danger of dying out.”

She said that as a part-time art teacher and community lecturer of many years she has had to discuss and imitate many artistic styles and movements.

“Seine net fishing is a very old traditional method of catching fish and I felt it deserved to be recorded in what we now would class as a ‘traditional’ style of painting.

“Therefore through my drawings, paintings and with the help of digital photography and impressionistic effects I have produced the main body of this work in what we call an impressionistic style, although I have also experimented with more contemporary styles as part of my artistic approach is one of experimentation.

“As an artist who has lived, and enjoyed the light, moods and changing seasons on this estuary for over thirty years, I think it would have been remiss of me not to have included paintings of the Seine net fishing boats and the fishermen along side my images of life on the estuary which has been an enormous source of inspiration through out my career as an artist,” she added.