New Albion. Sir Francis Drake's ship Golden hind Painting

At some point most children develop a passion for pirates and adventure stories. I developed my own interest in heroes and rebels while reading such fiction books as Captain Grant's Children [In Search of the Castaways], Robinson Crusoe, The Mysterious Island, Treasure Island, and The Chronicles of Captain Blood. As a child I used to play role games with my peers and we pretended to be pirates. When I was in my early twenties I created a board game for my friends based upon the plot of Treasure Island. Basically there were maps of a small part of England, where the novel starts, and of the treasure island itself. I drew the map by hand and used computer modeling software to create the key and indications. As a grown up I have kept my youthful dreams and still take pleasure in traveling and discovery. Nowadays I travel a lot, draw from life, and love to visit historical places. Commonly the natural space or the events that took place there shape my inspiration for my next picture. I found out that there is a Drake Passage between South America and Antarctica. I came across many photos of this rocky place, so that it was a starting point for the picture. The work on the picture took me no longer than a week. The most complicated task was to paint the water, since the reflections of the galleon and the rocks behind the ship were not convincing at the beginning. I’ve been several times to England. It is a country I enjoy visiting due to its traditions and customs. During one of my stays there, while going to museums, I became fascinated with the history of Sir Francis Drake and his voyage in Her Majesty's name, exploring the new lands, and decided to make a painting that would be based on Drake’s discoveries. I started reading books about him, painting sketches with ships, sea and rocks, studying the textures needed to create a picture. Thus, the idea of a painting gradually matured. I knew that there was a replica of the Golden Hinde in Brixham in the UK...