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98-053 "Titanic - Emerging"
1998, acrylic on illustration board

This is one of my favorite paintings, although it is a small piece (8x10") and lacks intricate detail. Sometimes, the "feel" of a piece is just as important, and I think I really captured what I felt. Titanic only encountered fog once in her short life, on the trip from her builders in Ireland to her new home port of Southampton, England. Despite intense pressure to bring the vessel to dock on time (more finishing touches were waiting there for her prior to her maiden voyage), Captain Smith and the same officers that would later make a fatal error in navigating judgment wisely slowed to a crawl in the night. Here we see the great liner, its lights ablaze, creeping through fog off the Cornwall coast - emerging into our sight, as she prepares to emerge into public view as the greatest ship in the world.

Chris Butler