The Royal Navy opened their portholes to me in the mid 1970s in the form of public access ‘Navy Days’ at their Devonport base in England. 

Visitors could board the aircraft carriers Ark Royal and Hermes, paw at heavy machine guns, and even throw sodden sponge projectiles at a scuba diver, who for charity, would duly flop into a large tank of water if struck. 

What stayed with me however, was the sight of an enormous dark grey submarine in dry dock. I think perhaps the volume of the vessel was dramatically emphasized due to its location in what was essentially a lidless concrete box. The shape of the sub was plump, but streamlined like a seal, and without the paraphernalia of the ships that sat above water. I remember the feeling in my stomach it produced like the sensation caused by a rapidly descending elevator stopping abruptly, I couldn’t rationalize the scale, and then imagining the sub cruising about under the oceans, I needed an ice cream to recover, it was sublime alright. 

Over time the idea of ‘surface’ would often arise in the study of painting: Indeed, what if the subconscious other than a capacious dark vessel full of hidden thought that occasionally breaks the surface of one’s awareness.