A new world auction record for a work by Cornish artist Jamie Medlin could be set tomorrow if his oil painting of a 1930s yacht sells, as expected, for around £50,000.
The current world auction record for a picture by Penryn-born, Falmouth-based Medlin is £49,250 – the sum paid at Christie's, in South Kensington, London, in November 2011, for his 2010 oil painting, Mariquita racing to windward during the Pendennis Cup.
That record will be broken if his latest oil painting – The triumphant return of the J-Class to British Waters: The Solent 18-21 July 2012 – sells for its pre-sale estimate at the same auction house tomorrow.
The painting shows the yacht Velsheda, winning a race in the J-Class Regatta on the Solent in July. The yacht was built by Camper and Nicholsons in 1933 for wealthy Woolworth stores chairman William Lawrence Stevenson who named the boat after his three daughters, Velma, Sheila and Daphne. One of the most advanced yachts of the time, she won more than 40 races in her second season but by 1937 she was laid up in a mud berth on the river Hamble and became derelict.
In 1996, she was bought as a bare hull and restored. She was re-launched in November the following year and is now owned by wealthy Dutch businessman Ronald de Waal.
Medlin is regarded as one of the most talented living British marine artists. His fans include legendary guitarist, Eric Clapton, who commissioned Medlin to paint a picture of his luxury yacht, Va Benne.
