The charity making life better by water
Making life better by water
Roses & Castles is a unique and distinctive part of our canals. Decorating everything from boat cabins to water cans, these fairy-tale scenes have a long history.
Techniques and individual flairs developed at individual boatyards and on different parts of the canals, among them Braunston, Polesworth, Leighton Buzzard, and many more.
We spoke to Phil Speight, renowned signwriter and boat painter, about how to get started painting Roses & Castles.
Phil said, ‘Roses & Castles is the folk art of the working canal boating families of the past. Only a handful of the very last generation are still alive. Historically, they formed a community and a culture completely separate from land dwellers.
My largely unpopular view is that painting which doesn’t fall within the conventions of that industrial boating society is not, in fact, within the classification of traditional canal painting. I make no attempt to develop it beyond the point that it ended in its original form.
My style, if I can be said to have one, is entirely derivative of and influenced by painters of the past. I think the most important thing to bring to the art is respect.’
Phil also shared his expert tips on painting traditional canal roses.
Phil recommends the following brushes:
*You can economise by just purchasing one of the two.
As for paints, you should invest in the following colours:
You can also buy pink, brown, green, and orange ready-made. However, with the primary colours, you can mix your paints to vary your palette. Phil suggests Craftmaster Decorative Flat Colour 125ml, a paint he developed to replicate the performance of the traditional lead-based paints used in the boatyards of the past.
Sketch the outline of your roses and paint your base layer.
The trick is to load your brush with plenty of paint so you can paint each petal in one smooth brush. To get the iconic shape of a canal art rose, hold your brush up right and use your other hand to support your wrist. Press the brush down and pull it. As you pull, slowly lift the brush away from the surface.
Practice each rose many times until you feel confident.
Phil never knowingly paints the same castle twice. Instead, he has in mind a series of ‘building blocks’ borrowed from the past to rearrange as he chooses. Every castle is different – sometimes you’ll see a river going under a bridge, sometimes a sea, sometimes no river and no bridge.
There are unwritten rules to what constitutes a canal art castle. But as Phil says, if a boat painter did it 100 years ago, it’s fine to do it now.
Unlike most forms of painting, canal art isn’t always on a flat surface. Your work has to complement the overall shape of the object you’re painting.
Whether it’s a boat cabin or a water can, avoid imposing shapes that won’t work with the overall form. For instance, don't divide a cabin into too many separate panels, as vertical divisions make a boat look shorter and less elegant. A thoughtful design can go a long way.
If you’re going to start painting canal roses, Phil urges you to do so with ‘dignity mixed with panache only after much study’. He recommends reading Flowers Afloat by A.J. Lewery and A Canal People by Sonia Rolt.
Finally, he suggests that you practice and practice again. Work hard at the craft and produce something worthwhile.
Phil teaches boat painting and signwriting courses. For more details, see his website.
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Last Edited: 29 May 2024
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