Lady Irene

Lady Irene is a large oil painting on canvas by Stephanie Fuller, depicting the iconic boat Lady Irene on the Deal foreshore in Kent. At 170 × 170 cm, this coastal scene offers an expansive encounter with a place where sea, shingle and maritime history meet.

The boat herself carries more than a century of stories. Lady Irene was built in 1906 as a trip boat, taking holiday-makers on short trips out to sea, and she is similar to but smaller than the historic Deal luggers. Clinker-built with a lute stern and gaff-rigged with a loose-footed mainsail, she was later fitted with an engine. She was once owned by the boatman known as "Doc" Bailey, who ferried people out to the Goodwin Sands, and by 2006 she had been fully restored by her owner.

Today she rests on the Deal foreshore, the last boat along the promenade, a quiet survivor of the days when Deal's beach was crowded with working boats. The painting invites a pause with her: a moment with a vessel that has watched the sea change around her, holding the memory of Deal's boatmen and their fearless seamanship.

• Artist: Stephanie Fuller
• Medium: Oil on canvas
• Dimensions: 170 × 170 cm (67 × 67 in)
• Subject: Lady Irene, Deal foreshore, Kent

For enquiries about this painting, email Stephanie at stephanie@stephaniefullerartist.co.uk.

© Stephanie Fuller (Burns)