Falklands War art exhibition to raise funds to help bring historic trawler ‘Viola’ home to Hull

ON DISPLAY: Larry Malkin with one of his paintings at Burton Constable Hall

By Simon Bristow

An art exhibition featuring the ships from Hull which sailed in the Falklands War Task Force is raising awareness and funds to help bring home the world’s oldest remaining steam trawler from its current resting place in the South Atlantic.

Larry Malkin, an artist based at Welwick in East Yorkshire, is displaying the paintings in the Stables Gallery at Burton Constable Hall. He will also donate 50 per cent of the proceeds from the sale of the works to the Viola Trust.

Included in the exhibition are paintings depicting the Hull ships in action during the conflict. They include the North Sea Ferry MV Norland, the trawlers Northella, Cordella, and Junella, and the tug Yorkshireman.

The exhibition also features Larry’s paintings of the Viola in her current location on the beach at Grytviken, as well as his interpretation of her launch at Beverley shipyard in 1906 and her journey under tow along the River Hull to work as part of the Hellyer Steam Fishing Company’s North Sea boxer fleet.

Many of the paintings were published in a Hull Task Force calendar produced by the Trust to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Falklands War, to raise awareness of the Viola’s history and her role in the conflict, and to support their campaign to bring her back to Hull.

Norman Court, the Trust’s project manager, said: “What many people forget is that the Viola was already there – having already seen action in the North Sea during the First World War she was sitting on a beach in Grytviken in 1982 when she was targeted by Argentine scrap metal merchants in one of the acts which triggered the Falklands War.”

Also available are some of Larry’s paintings which featured in the Trust’s Homeward Bound calendar, published in 2020 and showing ships with a strong Hull connection including the Viola, Norland, Arctic Corsair, and HMS Bounty, which was built in Hull as the Bethia in 1784.

Larry said: “My paintings of ships and seascapes started with pictures of the paddle steamer Lincoln Castle way back in the 1970s when, as a teacher, I was seconded to BBC Radio Humberside to make education programmes.

“The Humber Bridge had not opened, so journeys to the South Bank and the Grimsby studios depended on the paddle steamers and the level and state of the tide. I was delighted in 2019 to work with the Viola Trust on the calendar which came out the following year, and as 2022 approached we felt we should produce a second calendar to recognise the role of the Hull fleet in the Falklands War.

“Paintings from both calendars form a major part of this exhibition and I hope people will find the works interesting and will be inspired to support the campaign to bring back the Viola.”

Norman added: “We are very grateful to Larry once again for his support and his generosity. The global challenges of the last two years have presented us with particular difficulties in terms of costs and logistics, but our campaign continues and a key part of that is raising awareness of the Viola and her significance in Hull’s maritime heritage.

“We are working on some exciting new ideas which we hope to announce soon and meanwhile we would urge people to support Larry and Burton Constable Hall by visiting the exhibition.”

The “Adventure on the High Seas” exhibition will run until Sunday, September 25. More details are available here.

For further information about the paintings including prices contact larrymalkin@hotmail.co.uk. More information about the Viola campaign is available here.