Under the Sea Wall

Under the Sea Wall  takes the life of a scottish fishing community as its subject.  Some of the older men have gathered for a chat and one of them, perhaps a grandfather, is holding a little girl in pink.   They are surrounded by the parahpenalia of fishing life - they sit among fishing baskets and trays, behind them someone is at work on a boat  and in the distance is the ever-present sea.   Positioning the sea so high in the composition, above the heads of the me, the artists makes it quite dominant, perhaps in reference to the dominance it has in the lives of these fishermen who depend on it for their livelihood and who so often put their lives at its mercy.   The artist draws attention to the sea by casting it in sulight whilst the men are in shadow. He alsow dwarfs the men with the wall and houses which tower over them. Noble's figures are not strikingly heroic but neither are they overly sentimental. The dignity he gives them is characteristic of work by the East Lothian Group of which Noble was a member.