Tidbury approaches the hulls of small boats with a photographer’s eye for light and a painter’s sense of composition. Through hours of close-up exploration, he identifies naturally occurring patterns where oxidation and peeling paint mimic the appearance of distant shorelines or hazy horizons. The result is a visual trick; what appears to be a delicate application of soft pastel is actually a high-resolution capture of industrial grit and salt-worn surfaces.

The depth of the work relies on the specific marriage of digital capture and physical reproduction. By utilizing Giclée printing on archival paper, the artist preserves the intricate details of the boat’s skin while giving the final image a tactile, matte quality. This process emphasizes the organic shapes and rich color fields, inviting the viewer to find recognizable forms within the abstract layers of the maritime environment.