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Shane Couch was born in Lancashire near Liverpool England in 1963 and inherited a deep love of the sea from his father whose Cornish roots spread back many hundreds of years. After school he pursued a career as an aero-nautical engineer for 14 years. Throughout these years the sea drew him to it during any spare time and exercised an almost hypnotic obsession. After painting for some years in his spare time, selling largely to work colleagues, by 1992 he began to show in local galleries. Meeting with a good response, he took his work to the Marine Gallery in Cowes on the Isle of Wight where he was warmly received. Striking up a good relationship with the proprietor who actively promoted his work resulting in his embarkation on the unknown path of the professional “Yachting and Historic Marine artist” in June 1994. In 1997 hewas commissioned by the German Yachting Historian Dr Christin Lammerting to depict the German Kaisers Yachts, the 5 Meteors racing together, to be used for her new book “Meteor”. The success of this painting lead to a number of other paintings being commissioned and used to illustrate her book. In 2000 he was again commissioned by a prominent London Gallery to produce a series of large paintings to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the America’s Cup . These paintings formed an exhibition at the Jubilee celebration at Cowes. The exhibition was attended by yachting’s most influential figures. It was a great success and was included in the New York Yacht Clubs commemorative book of the event and was the subject of an article in “Country Life” Shane is a entirely self-taught, never having had a formal art lesson. Nature has been his great teacher combined with hours at the easel. Over the years his work has been sold in all the major Auction Houses in London including Christies, Sothebys and Bonhams. He is currently represented in America by a number of exclusive galleries on both the West and East Coast. “The Sea and the action of wind and light over its surface have long been an important part of my Historic Marine paintings. The painting of the sea is often a welcome break from the graphic accuracy of the yachts. I play with texture and colour as I attempt to recreate this fluid and reflective element. It is the studies I have done as a preparation for my larger Historic Marine pieces that have developed into making the sea the main subject of my new work.”
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