The 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin has drawn international attention to Australian artist Ron Scobie. John McIntyre* profi les the man whose painting of HMS Beagle in Sydney Harbour 1838 is the centrepiece of a major exhibition in the Natural History Museum in Kensington, London.
  Ronald Stewart Scobie, ASMA, the marine artist, of Gymea, Bay NSW, was a comparatively late bloomer in the specialised field of marine art. While he had sketched and dabbled in paints since childhood, his interest in marine subjects really did not commence in earnest until he reached early middle age. Since then his paintings, with their meticulous attention to detail, have drawn attention both in Australia and internationally.
  His forbears, on both sides of the family, were mining folk from Scotland and Northern Ireland, recruited to work in the burgeoning industry in New South Wales and Queensland in the late 1800s. His paternal grandfather Isaac Scobie became Mine Manager at the Model Mine at Woonoona and the South Bulli Colliery at Bellambi.
  There seems little doubt that Ron Scobie inherited his ‘hands on’ practical skills from his mining forbears. His friends reckon that he can fix anything and build anything – including several sizeable boats.
  His beloved 30ft flying bridge game fishing vessel Sea Witch was built in the driveway of his home, a task that took nearly five years. Ron and his family have now retired from game fishing and its administration but his record over many years as treasurer and committee man of the Port Hacking Game Fishing Club is unmatched.
  It was probably inevitable that Ron would embark on a career as a trades person after leaving Canterbury Junior High School, Sydney. He served an apprenticeship as a fitter and turner at the Department of Transport during the last years of the century old Sydney electric tram service. Here he learned many traditional engineering skills in addition to the usual prescribed mechanical fitting subjects.
  The demise of the electric trams saw Ron move over to the old established firm of Waugh and Josephson Pty Ltd, NSW agents for the huge US engine and earthmoving company Caterpillar. Starting in the workshops as a fitter, he advanced through workshop supervision, service and parts representation to management at their Alexandria headquarters. At the time of his retirement in mid-1995, Ron had nearly 40 years service with W&J and its successor companies. Over this period he and Helen raised their two children Jeff and Elizabeth, gave them a loving home life and sent them on their way into the world.
Zeppelin off Sydney Harbour. / Ron Scobie with a poster featuring his painting of HMS Beagle.
  Throughout this time Ron maintained his interest in maritime matters which really had its genesis in discussions over the family dinner table during his childhood. His father Bill had eschewed the family tradition of ‘going down the pit’ and had taken employment as a young man with several post World War I trading houses, including being appointed Grain Manager in the Perth office of Dalgety and Company.
  The Depression bit deeply during the early 1930s, leading to Bill losing his job. Upon the family’s return to their home in Sydney, Bill managed to secure a position as a tally clerk at Burns Philp and Co Ltd, the shipping and Pacific Island trading company. The tally clerks at BP were skilled personnel, responsible for the allocation and exact recording of stowage of everything aboard the Company ships. At home, much of the conversation was of the events of the day on the wharves and of the movements of various ships, even those not flagged as Burns Philp vessels. The Sydney waterfront was a busy and exciting place in this era.
  From this childhood background, Ron later took a profound interest in the working tugboats of Australia, over time amassing an encyclopaedic file of vessels engaged in this work since the 1830s.
  House flags of the various shipping lines that plied Australian waters became an adjunct to the files, resulting in a sizeable dossier with illustrations, identifying the many companies who came and went, and continued, in the Australian merchant maritime industry.
  Later collections of archival material included illustrations and specifications of many vessels, both Australian registered and foreign flagged, from the very early days of mercantile activities in the colony, to the present time.
  While he had dabbled more seriously from about 1983, retirement provided Ron with the time and opportunity to improve his skills and to broaden his perspective in the marine art field.
  From the earliest days, he had been an admirer of the skills of the late Australian artists Jack Earl and John Allcott and, in later years, one of the contemporary leaders of Australian marine art, Ian Hansen.
First Day letter cover released by GB Covers of UK.  Ron joined a number of art groups and painted a variety of marine and aeronautical scenes, including battles, historical encounters and early vessels plying the UK to Australia emigrant routes. Of the latter projects, a number were commissioned by people seeking further details of their ancestors and their arrival in the Colony. Many word of mouth recommendations ensued and Ron’s attendance at art shows and demonstration displays helped spread his name.
  He became an Exhibiting Member of the Australian Society of Marine Artists and he regularly attends and displays at their events. He has also continued his long association with the Southern Cross Art Group, a society operating in the southern suburbs of Sydney. Ron is currently president of the group and his wife, Helen, is editor of the Group’s newsletter. With both these organisations he reckons on being involved with seven or eight exhibitions or displays a year.
  Among Ron Scobie’s many paintings, a number have attracted particular attention. His painting of Captain Matthew Flinder’s HMS Investigator watering and timbering in 1802, at the site that became Port Lincoln, South Australia, was recently incorporated into a display at the Australian Arid Lands Botanic Gardens near Port Augusta, South Australia. The Gardens have views out to the distant Flinders Ranges, named after the great navigator.
  The 200th anniversary of the famous Battle of Trafalgar inspired Ron to research and prepare a large depiction of the state of the battle at precisely 3.20pm on October 21, 1805. Seventeen ships of the line from the British and French/Spanish fleets were captured at that moment in time, in various states of both triumph and despair, while in the foreground crews in small boats are attempting to rescue seamen from the waters. It is a chaotic yet atmospheric scene of this monumental sea battle that cemented the maritime might of the British Empire for well over a century. Ron refused to sell the painting and it now resides near the front entrance to his home.
  International attention was drawn to Ron’s work by his painting ‘HMS Beagle in Sydney Harbour 1838’. This was the ship upon which Charles Darwin sailed in the great voyages of discovery that led to his landmark 1859 book On the Origin of Species by Natural Selection.
  The painting was displayed at the Brisbane exhibition of the Australian Society of Marine Artists in 2006 and was subsequently purchased by Mr John Reid of Sydney.
  The Charles Darwin Bi-Centenary in 2009 has led to considerable interest in the man and his discoveries regarding the evolution of the species and several exhibitions and events are currently in progress. The Natural History Museum in Kensington, London is hosting a major exhibition and following approaches to Ron and Mr Reid, the painting of HMS Beagle has become the centrepiece of various NHM promotions.
  Display posters, souvenir items and the like have the painting featured and two First Day letter covers have been released by GB Covers of UK, also featuring the same image. From across the English Channel, requests came from the Nantes Museum of Natural History in France to display the HMS Beagle image in their Charles Darwin display.
Kathleen Gillett off Cape Pillar.  Likewise, the Centre for Life, Times Square, Newcastle, UK, has incorporated the painting in their Dome Display area. On home soil, the Perth Mint has commissioned commemorative coins for the Darwin Anniversary and the painting is featured in the publicity material.
  Recently Ron was approached and gave permission for his painting to be displayed on the cover of the IATE magazine of the Clube De Santos, a prestigious yacht club in Brazil.
  HMS Beagle and Charles Darwin have certainly been in the limelight this year and Ron Scobie’s work has played a part in the various promotions.
  Time moves on, and Ron has been working busily on his contributions to a perpetual exhibition by members of the Australian Society of Marine Artists, themed around the eight days that changed Australian history when Captain James Cook’s HMS Endeavour was anchored in Botany Bay in April 1770.
Akarana off Sydney Heads.  The exhibition which opened on April 29 at the newly developed Visitor and Cultural Centre, on the site of the current Discovery Centre in the Botany Bay National Park, Kurnell. Ron’s paintings to be displayed feature the Endeavour’s pinnace, the ship’s sail maker at work and an aborigine spearing fish in the shallows from a bark canoe.
  What we have described here is just a fraction of the output of this local marine artist, Ron Scobie, ASMA, a man whose research, painting skills and attention to detail has enabled him to rank with his peers in the Australian marine art world, and to provide his clients with memorable images.
  One has the distinct impression that Ron has plenty of other ship paintings in the pipeline.
Ron Scobie’s website is at: http://www.ronscobiemarineartist.com
*John McIntyre, is a journalist, historian and gamefishing writer.