“I wanted to create something that respected the original landscape while acknowledging that exploration never stands still. The river is still carrying people out into the world. The means may have changed, but the spirit of discovery hasn't.”

- Tai-Shan Schierenberg  

The commission: Scenic Eclipse II comes to Greenwich

What interested you about revisiting Canaletto's Greenwich through contemporary eyes, and what does that historic scene mean to you today?

I've always admired Canaletto. He was an extraordinary painter, but he was also a very astute businessman. He came to London because this was where his market was. London was booming through trade with the Americas, the Caribbean and India, and wealthy merchants wanted paintings that celebrated the city they were helping to build. 

One of his most celebrated views is of Greenwich Hospital, now the Old Royal Naval College. I wanted to revisit that painting because it captures a place that, remarkably, has hardly changed. 

When I went down to Greenwich for the first time, I was genuinely surprised. Of course there are modern boats on the Thames and a few contemporary buildings, but if you look through the courtyard of the Old Royal Naval College towards the Royal Observatory, the hillside is still green, just as it was in Canaletto's painting. Standing there, you can almost imagine yourself back in the eighteenth century. 

Rather than trying to imitate Canaletto, I wanted to enter into a conversation with him across nearly three centuries. The challenge wasn't to recreate his painting, but to ask what that same view represents today. 

Greenwich has always been associated with exploration. In Canaletto's time the Thames was the great artery of the British Empire, bringing ships, people and ideas from all over the world. Today it represents a different kind of exploration, but that sense of discovery still exists. Scenic Eclipse II felt like a natural continuation of that story. 

What first catches your eye about Scenic Eclipse II, and what makes it an interesting subject to paint?

My first impression was that it's a remarkable piece of design. It's such a dynamic yacht. The layering of the decks, the shape of the bow and the whole silhouette immediately caught my attention. 

I'm not someone who comes from a sailing background, so I looked at it with fresh eyes. It struck me as something incredibly contemporary, almost futuristic. In some ways it looks more like something from a James Bond film than a traditional expedition ship. 

But the more I looked at it, the more I began to appreciate the amount of thought that has gone into every aspect of its design. It's cutting-edge naval technology, but it's also incredibly elegant. 

As a painter, that's fascinating because objects can have personality just as people do. Scenic Eclipse II has its own character. You can tell its designers have poured enormous thought and care into every line and every curve. That creates a responsibility. You want to do justice to their work in the same way you would when painting a portrait of someone. 

What interested me wasn't simply painting a beautiful yacht. It was understanding what makes it distinctive, then finding a way for that personality to sit naturally within one of Britain's most historic landscapes.  

Approaching the canvas: Canaletto, Greenwich and a contemporary vessel

How do you approach placing such a contemporary vessel into one of Britain's most historic river scenes? 

The first thing was not to think of it simply as putting a yacht into an old painting. That would have been too superficial. The real challenge was to find a relationship between them that felt genuine. 

At first they seemed completely different. Greenwich Hospital is this magnificent piece of classical architecture, while Scenic Eclipse II is an incredibly modern piece of naval engineering. But the more I thought about it, the more connections I began to discover. 

Greenwich Hospital was originally created as a place of hospitality. Later it became a place of learning and discovery. Scenic Eclipse II is also a place of hospitality, but one that's built around exploration and discovery. Suddenly they didn't feel like opposites anymore. They felt like two chapters of the same story. 

Then I started looking more closely at the visual relationships. The layering of the decks on the yacht began to echo the rhythm of Wren's colonnades. The alternating bands of light and shadow on the architecture seemed to relate to the black and white forms of the vessel. 

Those connections gave me confidence that the yacht belonged in the composition. My aim was never to dominate Canaletto's landscape with a contemporary object, but to allow the two worlds to exist together naturally. 

Once I'd found those relationships, the painting became much less about contrast and much more about continuity. 

Painting Scenic Eclipse II: character, design and the challenge of scale

What has been the biggest artistic challenge in bringing the painting to life? 

It was a really interesting puzzle to solve. Scenic Eclipse II is such a dynamic, contemporary vessel, while Greenwich is one of Britain's best-known historic landscapes. The challenge wasn't simply painting them accurately. It was finding a composition where both could exist together without one overwhelming the other.  

Scale was incredibly important. The yacht has a very powerful presence, but so do the buildings. If either became too dominant, the balance of the painting would be lost. 

I also spent a lot of time thinking about perspective. Eventually I started researching the world of expedition ships, looking at portholes, compasses and navigation. That led me towards the circular format. 

The tondo has a long history in painting, but here it also felt completely appropriate because it echoed the language of ships and exploration. Once I'd arrived at that idea, everything else began to fall into place. 

The circular composition allowed me to frame both Scenic Eclipse II and the Old Royal Naval College within the same image without either feeling squeezed or forced. 

Every painting presents problems to solve. That's one of the pleasures of painting. At the end of it all, I'd love another painter to look at it and think, "You solved that problem well."

What are you most looking forward to about experiencing Scenic Eclipse II and the places it explores? 

What appeals to me most is the opportunity to experience parts of the world that very few people ever see. As a painter, you're always looking for new sources of inspiration and new ways of seeing the world. The idea of travelling to remote places, particularly somewhere like Antarctica, is incredibly exciting. 

Scenic Eclipse II isn't simply a means of getting somewhere. It becomes part of the experience itself. The voyage and the destination feel equally important. 

I suspect any artist would come back with new ideas after a journey like that. You're constantly observing light, landscape and atmosphere, and those experiences inevitably find their way into future paintings. That's what excites me most. It's the possibility that the journey itself becomes the beginning of another piece of work. 

Do you try to give a ship its own character in the same way you would a human? 

I think everything has character. Obviously, people have personalities, but objects do too, particularly when they've been designed with real care and imagination. Scenic Eclipse II has a very distinctive personality. You can see the amount of thought that's gone into every line, every surface and every curve. It isn't just a functional object. It's something people have poured themselves into. 

That's actually not so different from portraiture. When you paint a person, you're trying to understand what makes them distinctive. With the yacht, you're trying to understand what makes its design distinctive. I felt a responsibility to the people who created it. They have invested so much creativity into the vessel that you want to do right by their work. In that sense it isn't simply painting a ship. It's understanding the personality that sits behind it. 

Exploration, discovery and what comes next

What do ships represent to you personally or artistically? 

[They] have always fascinated me because they suggest journeys. They're about possibility. They're about leaving one place and discovering another. In this commission, that idea became much richer because Scenic Eclipse II isn't simply transporting people from A to B. It represents curiosity, exploration and the desire to experience places that are genuinely remote. That's something I find inspiring as an artist because you're always searching for new experiences, new landscapes and new ways of seeing. I suppose that's why the yacht felt entirely at home in Greenwich. It continues a story that has always been about people setting out into the unknown. 

Will you aim primarily for accuracy, atmosphere, or a balance of both? 

It's always a balance. Obviously, I want people to recognise Scenic Eclipse II and recognise Greenwich. Those things matter. But I'm not interested in producing a photographic record. I'm interested in making a painting. The brushwork, the colour and the atmosphere are all part of that. If they weren't, I might as well just take a photograph. What I'm looking for is something that feels true rather than something that's mechanically exact. If people recognise both subjects while also feeling they're looking at a genuine work of art, then I'll feel I've succeeded. 

In what ways does painting a ship differ from your approach to portraiture? 

Portraits are obviously about people, but in another sense the process isn't so different. In both cases you're trying to understand what makes the subject distinctive. With a portrait, that's expressed through someone's face and character. With Scenic Eclipse II it's expressed through design, proportion, movement and the intentions of the people who created it. In both cases you're trying to understand the personality of the subject rather than simply describing what it looks like. 

Is there anything else that stayed with you about the commission? 

One of the pleasures of this commission was discovering connections I hadn't anticipated. At first, it seemed like bringing together two completely different worlds. But the more time I spent with the project, the more those connections revealed themselves. The architecture, the yacht, hospitality, learning, exploration, navigation... they all began to fit together. That's usually a good sign when you're making a painting. The work starts telling you things you didn't know at the beginning. That's probably what I'll remember most about this commission. 

We’d like to thank Tai for his incredible hard work in bringing our spectacular yacht to life – it has been a pleasure watching his masterpiece come to fruition, and we’re delighted to have this priceless keepsake to commemorate such a momentous occasion in Scenic’s history. 

If we’ve left you feeling inspired, experience Scenic Discovery Yachts for yourself on one of our spectacular itineraries spanning all seven continents, more than 100 countries and over 600 ports of call.