Cruise the Storm

by David Chilcott

  "Now, I don't want you to start painting until you've watched me complete my picture, because I'll explain what I'm doing, and why, and that will help you. And while you're doing the painting yourselves, I'll walk round, and if you are having difficulty I can point you in the right direction.

  "First, take a look at the small paint boxes on your desks. These are free, and yours to take away, courtesy of Winsor and Newton, who are one of the best British manufacturers of art materials. The tubes contain Artist's quality paint. Never paint with student quality paint, because it doesn't contain enough pigment, that's why it is cheap. Your paintings will be rubbish through no fault of your own, and you will give up in despair. So I've just given you the biggest piece of advice it is possible to give.

  "Next, use a limited number of colours. Most artists use six or seven paints as their basic palette, and maybe add another three which they use occasionally. The six in the box in front of you are the ones that I use. Note that there is no green. Mixing green is easy, and will look more natural than a green straight from the tube.

  "You squeeze the tubes into the small depressions in your palette, and mix the colours in the big depressions." He held up his own palette to demonstrate. "As you can see, my palette is quite messy, and I wipe out the mixing bowls from time to time, but painters are messy people. If you want to start with a clean palette, you can wash equipment in the sinks," McBride pointed to the far wall, "and also fill up your containers. One container of clean water will be enough for one painting, no fiddling about with one container with clean water to mix the paints, and another to wash the brushes. When you get to painting out of doors, you need the minimum of equipment."

  There was a rush to the sinks, and McBride added, "And by the way, we reach Vigo tomorrow, so we'll hold the painting class in the harbour area, painting boats and buildings!

  "And the next thing I want you to do, is to finish the drawing, and then we are ready for painting."

  There was a general rush back to their desks, and heads were bent to the task in hand.

  McBride said, "Don't press too hard on those pencils. Try to gauge distances on your paper, such as the cottage is about three quarters across the page, or the clump of trees starts half way across, and the horizon, or eye level is one third up the paper from the bottom. You don't have to calculate, just gauge things with your eye!"

  Eventually, most of the pupils sat back waiting. McBride made a quick tour, attending to the three people still struggling, giving a few tips, and words of encouragement.

  "Next," he said, "I'll paint my version, telling you everything I'm doing, while you sit back and relax. Don't you start yet, just watch me." He had the easel at a steep angle, so that all could see.

  "The paint may run a little, due to the steep angle. Normally you should paint at between twenty and thirty degrees to the horizontal. First I paint the sky. You don't have to paint it first, but most painters do. I think because it only takes a minute or two, and you've got half the painting done." There were a few smiles. "I use cobalt blue for the sky, and here I am mixing it in the palette. Note, it needs to be fairly thick, because I'm going to paint wet in wet, as it is called when you paint on a wet surface. I take a clean brush, a big one, it's number sixteen." He dipped it in the water jar. "Get it really full of water, and quickly wet all the sky area. I know it's running down into the countryside, but I'm not worried yet."

  He took another large brush and dipped it into the mixed cobalt paint. "This is the sky, and effectively I'm painting round the clouds, but don't think of it like that, or it will become too obvious, and with water colour, you have to be loose, and quick. See how far up the shank of the brush I'm holding it? That lets you paint loosely." He brought the brush to the wet paper, and swept the paint on in a lazy zed across the sky. Miraculously, suddenly the clouds were hanging in the sky. Everyone drew in their breath at the relief of the painting springing to life, and in only three brush strokes.

  "We're not finished with the sky yet," said McBride, picking up the original brush that had held clear water, and drawing it through his fingers so that it was dry. He then used it to mop the paint that was running down into the picture, and brushing at the clouds to remove paint from the white areas. "Don't overdo the mopping up, you want it to look careless.

  "Now, I want to mix the rest of the blue I have purposely got left over, with a touch, and I only mean a touch, of cadmium red, because it is a powerful colour. Now you see it is going a greyish blue, or what I call a shadow colour." He used the new colour to add to the bottom of the clouds, tapering the colour out with another brush. "You see I put a little arrow up at the top of the paper when I drew the picture, but nobody commented. That was to remind me what side the sun was shining from. So I want a bit more shadow at this side of the clouds, so."

  McBride lifted the drawing board off his easel, reversed it and put it back so that the picture was upside down. "Now, still using the shadow colour, I paint it along the horizon, and wet it paler and draw it up into the sky. If you look at the sky with a painter's eye you will see it darkens towards the horizon, because you are looking through a lot more atmosphere at that angle." He pointed out of the window at the horizon. There was no land now to be seen, the ship was in the Bay of Biscay.

  McBride said, "Next, I'm looking at completing the painting. You can check in several ways whether the paint is dry where you don't want it to run, which can cause a 'cabbage effect', the scourge of all water colourists. This is caused by the paint you are applying going on to paint which has started to dry. It is a capillary effect, the new paint leeching into the paint already on the paper. It's called the cabbage effect, because it is what it looks like! Believe me, it's almost impossible to correct, so you could ruin the complete painting. So, how to tell whether the paint is dry, and that can be a long time, if the air is humid. What you do, is to look at the paper close up, and along, where any wet paint will show up because it glistens. The other way is to lightly touch the paper with the back of your hand, which is very sensitive. But beware, because you can smudge the paint if it is not dry. But smudging is better than cabbaging.

  "Now we will mix a green which is very blue, for the mountains or hills in the background. We mix a weak solution of paint, because receding objects are not as dark as the foreground."

  He began mixing paint. "I am putting some water from the brush into the palette, and then adding French ultramarine blue. To that I add a little raw umber. What it makes is a greyish green, as you can see when I apply it. The difficult part of water colour painting is what we call 'tonal value.' And I will deal with it later. All water colours dry lighter, which is difficult. And it is not just a bit lighter, but, like thirty percent. If you reckon a third lighter, you will be close. So as I add this paint for the hills, you might think it is too dark, but let's take a break for questions, and as it dries, you will see it lighten until it's just about right."

  One of the sisters said, "So how do you know what depth of tone you mix?"

  "Ah, that is the question, and the answer is, experience. You are going to paint a lot of pictures where the tone is going to be wrong. But with every picture you paint, the tonal value is going to be better, and there will come the day when you do it without consciously thinking about it, and lo and behold, you are an artist. If it was too easy, it wouldn't be worth the effort."

  She sat back, with a smile on her face, clearly content with what McBride had told her, and the rest of the class.

  "Now you can start and paint in your sky, and when you've finished that, we'll go a bit further." McBride put down his brush, and began a tour of his pupils. He stopped by the captain's desk.

  McBride said, "I can see that you have painted before, Captain. Very good"

  "I want to be a lot better. This is going to be one of my hobbies in retirement. This is my last voyage. The cruise line don't like old men on the bridge! Anyway, how did you get in to this painting lark? Did you go to art school?"

&nb
sp; John grinned. "No. When I was in my twenties, I had a mate I was working with who was always painting scenes, when he got a chance. I used to watch him, and thought, that is what I would like to do. So the next leave, when I got home, I went out and bought some gear, on his recommendation."

  "When you were on leave?" the captain picked up.

  "Yes, I was in the army, fourteen years altogether."

  "What regiment?"

  "22 SAS Regiment."

  "What rank when you left?" said the captain.

  "I was a captain when I left. My resignation came about after I was painting outdoors on leave, over a year later than when I had started painting in earnest, and a chap was watching. Suddenly he said, 'If you want I'll sell your paintings for you. I'm an agent, and I have a few galleries, and supply many more'. I quizzed him about how much he might pay, and he told me what he thought my paintings might bring, although he also said he would want fifty per cent commission."

  "You made your mind up on the spot?"

  "Not likely! I said, I've got a lot of paintings at home, take forty or fifty, and let me know when you sell them, and I went back to the army. Two months later, he phoned me, said he'd sold those, and had I done plenty more? I was gobsmacked, and applied to leave the army."

  The captain said, "That's interesting news."

  McBride stared at him. "What, paying fifty percent commission? It's quite normal."

  "No, I mean you being an ex-SAS man." The captain had been phoned and told that they were carrying a terrorist aboard.

  McBride shrugged and moved further along the row of desks.

  Chapter 11

  It was three o'clock next morning when the ship finally berthed in the harbour at Vigo. The captain left the bridge, made straight for his cabin, and within fifteen minutes was asleep.

  McBride stirred in his sleep and realised that the main engines were no longer running, and the cessation of their faint vibration is what had woken him; not the sound of voices coming from the quayside. He turned over, and went back to sleep.

  It wasn't until 8 am when Keith Bourne woke, that he realised that they had docked. Just one more port and the hijack would begin. But before then lots of things had to slot into place, and at every turn things had to go right, or there wouldn't be a hijack at all. Which is why, Bourne thought, there are hardly any hijacks at all.

  The sun was shining and at 10am McBride's band of would-be artists were gathered in the craft room collecting painting materials. All were dressed in light summer clothes, with the captain in shirtsleeve order. McBride made for the large windows and beckoned his class to join him.

  "This is a good viewpoint to pick out a painting spot," said McBride, who had already picked the view earlier. "Remember what we are looking for; one, sun in the right direction, preferably across the scene, two, depth of painting – we need close and mid distant interest, and a pleasing background. And importantly, we need composition.

  "If you follow where I'm pointing, you will see some bollards on the quayside, and local fishing boats, some moored up to the quayside, and some further out, lying at buoys. Look further across and you get the distant town buildings, and some interesting dock buildings, too. And the sun will be in the right position until about noon, and you will have finished painting by then"

  There was some nervous laughter.

  "Don't worry. The first thing you do is take a photograph, so that you can carry on, however long it takes. If by any chance any of you don't have a camera, you can have a print from me. I can get it printed in the office here.

  "Right, are you all ready to go?"

  The class snaked out of the door behind McBride and together they went down in the lift .When they got down the gangplank they realised that it was a very warm day.

  "I suggest that those who haven't brought hats go back for them, or alternatively, arrange to stand in some shade," McBride said. He walked up and down the quay, stopping now and then, holding his hands in the shape of a rectangle. He did this for about five minutes, the class watching him restlessly.

  "I'm just deciding where I'm going to paint, which is what you should be doing too," said McBride

  The class started to move around, aping McBride.

  John himself had now settled on a spot and was erecting his easel, clipping paper to his drawing board.

  "If you just gather round, before you start, I'll give you some pointers. You see, I'm effectively drawing what I see, the same size on the paper. That way I can measure the distances using my pencil as a measuring stick. I've left important features well away from the edges of the picture, in case I get it slightly wrong. The last thing you want is for something to look as if it's lost in the picture mount.

  "You can see that the composition is quite good, the nearest boats to the left of the picture, and in the mid-ground the other boats just right of the centreline, and the bigger buildings in the distance on the far left. Then the spectator will look across the painting and back again as his eyes go to the background, and hopefully come back to rest on the nearest boats.

  "As soon as I've got my painting started, I shall be going round looking at how you are getting on. So, no wasting time!"

  In two hours, McBride had not only given every member of the group some hints, and spent time with them, but had also finished his own painting. He looked back at The Helena, and saw quite a few passengers had been watching them from up aloft. He noticed, standing on the top deck, the vertically challenged member of the "office party", as he still thought of the group. He appeared to be on his mobile phone. Quite plausible, thought McBride, must be a good signal so close to the city, and so high up.

  He turned to finish packing his easel. He would find something to eat nearby, and then paint another scene at the dockside.

  Chapter 12

  Morton left by air for Vigo in Spain. The ship was due to dock there the following night and would remain until 6pm the day after. He flew Iberian, and stopped overnight in Vigo before the ship arrived. He then had to book in to a Vigo hotel, because the ship would not dock until 3am.

  Morton was up early the next morning, and after a coffee, walked down to the docks. The cruise liner towered above the dock buildings, even though, Morton had been told, she was only a small ship by cruise ship standards. At 9am he was on the ship, and checking in soon after. While finalising his registration, he asked whether he could have a meeting with the captain, and to reinforce his request, flashed his Home Office credentials. The receptionist was suitably impressed, and fixed a meeting for 9.30am.

  The captain shook hands with Morton, and waved him to a chair beside his desk.

  "I can't give you too long, as I'm due in a painting class which starts at ten o'clock."

  "I won't take up too much of your time," said Morton, "You probably know that you have a terrorist and his cohorts travelling with you, Keith Bourne. I'm sorry to say we didn't find out until he had already boarded, different passport, don't you know. It was thanks to your head office security we were tipped off. So that is why I have joined the ship. We know that he won't have been able to get arms on board with your level of security, but I expect you take aboard provisions during the cruise, yes?"

  "When we dock at Malaga, actually. We always collect fruit there."

  "We've heard, from our colleagues in six, that there is some rumour that one of the Costa Sol ex-patriots has been getting his hands dirty locally, so some arms may be about to come aboard. We have, I admit, been adding two and two to get five, but we must act on our hunches."

  "I understand. We get our supplies from a well-known chandlers, but we can check the goods this time, by looking into every crate. I'll tell you what, I can duck out of the art class tomorrow and have meeting at 11am when we are at sea, what do you say? You can tell the Catering Director how to proceed."

  Chapter 13

  Bourne had taken the piece of paper out of his wallet, the one with the phone number on, and carefully typed it into his mobile phone. Af
ter a second or two, he got the continental ringing tone, a double buzz, followed by a pause. Somebody at the other end said "Si?"

  "Is that Biff?"

  A silence, and then: "I hope you are speaking from a pay as you go yes or no."

  "Yes," replied Bourne. "In Vigo. We dock on Thursday evening, load early Friday at Malaga. Just checking all systems go."

  "If you mean have I got the cargo, the answer is yes."

  "Malaga, Avenue de Andalucia three hundred and twenty-one, Mr Smith, password charity." Bourne gave the Western Union shop, which now held the money in a parcel addressed to Mr Smith, and Biff could collect it if he gave the password 'charity'.

  "Thanks, mate, it will be delivered tomorrow to the chandlers' warehouse, in Malaga two pallets of oranges marked for loading on, 7am Friday this week. The rest is up to you. Two boxes are marked with a black cross."

  There was the sound of the call terminating. No goodbye, the rotten bastard. He was a typical Costa del Sol English crook. Overpaid and a lazy fat bastard.

  He leaned on the rail again and watched the painting class trailing to the boat, with plastic bags containing their paints and their boards stuck under their arms. The artist bloke, who eyed Bourne with suspicion every time they happened to see each other, had gone off in the opposite direction, away towards the dock gates. Was he a spy? wondered Bourne, put on the ship because the cruise company had caught a whiff of trouble? Also, the captain consorted with him under the guise of joining the art classes. A very poor cover. You would not have imagined McBride as an artist, either, too fit looking. Still, what could he do, or anyone else at this stage? The hijack would happen and Bourne's name would go into the history books.