A ROYAL Society prize-winning artist has “shed tears” after learning the Welsh lifeboat she painted for a national exhibition has been permanently beached.
Sam Robson, 59, won the Daler-Rowney Prize for her moving painting of the historic Charles Henry Ashley vessel, moored in Cemaes Harbour on Ynys Môn.
However, it was while accessing the National Historic Ships Register to check her spelling of the lifeboat’s name, that Sam discovered its fate.
Sam said: “I must confess I cried after learning the Charles Henry Ashley would never return to the sea again – having been deemed too unsafe to be used as a training sailboat, and beyond practical and economic repair.
“From the moment I first saw her in Summer 2022, I knew the Cemaes Bay lifeboat was special. It would have been something else – watching her coming to save you, with her red sails billowing and the crew rowing at full speed – in the early 1900s.
“Finding out that, after more than a hundred years, her days braving the stormy seas around Ynys Môn had officially come to an end, was heartbreaking. It gave me a shiver to realise I had used the mourning colours of black and purple for the mud and stones of the harbour in my painting, which seemed a little prophetic.”
But Sam’s tears were turned into smiles when, a month later, she received an email from the Royal Society of Marine Artists. Her painting had been accepted for the ‘Afloat or Ashore’ open call exhibition and won the highly coveted Daler-Rowney Prize.
She continued: “I never imagined I would win a Royal Society prize.
“Just being accepted for one of their exhibitions felt like a huge honour – especially for a subject matter so close to my heart. I grew up with another historic boat, the Shearwater, which my late father poured his heart and soul into keeping seaworthy.
“More than a hundred years old, she can still be seen out on the waters every August in Trearddur Bay.”
Sam’s painting will be displayed in The Custom House, Exeter Quays, in early Spring 2025 before making its way to the Embankment in London for a special exhibition aboard HMS Wellington.
She plans to donate money earned from the sale of the original painting or prints to a fundraiser, led by Cemaes Boat Club, which aims to preserve the Charles Henry Ashley for the future in a suitable location where visitors can enjoy her history.
These developments have all proved hugely encouraging to Sam, who is in remission from Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
Sam, who is also known as ‘Lymphoma Lass’, recalled: “Remembering the smell of sea air on Ynys Môn, the wind in my face, the ‘clink, clink’ of the spars on masts and the view across Trearddur Bay helped me to keep going through my long months of chemotherapy and radiotherapy for blood cancer.
“I had to learn to walk again after the five broken vertebrae that happened during treatment. I have holidayed on Ynys Môn from being a child, and to be able to return to the island in a relative state of good health, is a true blessing.
“To show proper respect to the local people, I have been learning Welsh through the government scheme and passed my first exam this summer. This inspired my epitaph on my exhibition entry: ‘Cadwch yn ddiogel rŵan/Keep safe now, Charles Henry Ashley, ar ôl achub eraill/after saving others’.”
Click here to view the ‘Afloat or Ashore’ exhibition online.
