Green Sail - Marianne Urth
Marianne Urth
Green Sail
Mixed media
50x50cm
$600
I have always had a passion for sailing. I love the ocean, the waves and the wind and the first thing I do every morning when I wake up, is to check the weather app on my phone. What is the wind going to be like today? Are the waves going to be monstrous?
I grew up surrounded by the Baltic Sea and started sailing from a young age. I had a dream of one day conquering the South Pacific and with my husband we are getting closer.
We sailed in the deep and isolated fjords in the South of Chile and after moving to Sydney, a paradise for sailors, we have cruised up and down the East Coast of Australia many times.
The weather in this part of the world can be brutal and unforgiving if you don’t plan ahead and study the weather forecasts. Sometimes you get caught out in a storm despite all the planning; loud thunder, blinding lightning and 50 knot wind gusts. In those moments I wish to be anywhere else than on the boat and promise myself never to set foot on a sailing boat again. But then the storm passes, the wind eases, the waves dissipates and the sun comes out and sailing is wonderful again.
So why do I love painting the effervescent ocean, the wild sea and the rough weather when I’m so scared of it? Maybe because in that moment when my passion for sailing meets the fear for survival, I feel exhilarated, alive and that’s what I want to convey in my paintings.