Alistair Swatridge CV

Alistair was born in 1959, in Dorset England. From 6 years old, he had set his dream of going to sea and as soon as he was able, his dreams became reality. He spent over 30 years in a Naval career that took him around the world and finally attain Command of his own ship. 

Unfortunately, in his early career an horrific and traumatic event left him mentally scared, against family advice, it was left untreated, in order to fulfil his dream of getting a command, but it would resurface again much later and finally blight and end his much loved career and also ruin much of his personal life over the years. 

At only 46, he was forced to medically retire, much earlier than he had ever contemplated or planned. Following a very brief introduction to local politics, he decided life ashore was not for him and he and his wife moved afloat to continuously cruise the rivers and canals of Great Britain in their Narrowboat. 

After more than 5 years of cruising the British network, his poor health was still an issue, so he and his wife moved their boat to the quieter and more sedate surroundings of Ireland to the Shannon, Lough's Derg, Ree and Erne, on the Irish Waterways.

They have totally fallen in love with its people, the beautiful landscape and it’s less crowded, more sedate unique Irish lifestyle within the peaceful and quiet surroundings that the island of Ireland has to offer. They have finally dropped their anchor and whilst still cruising the waterways in the summer, have finally made their home on the border with Northern Ireland, using this as a base to explore more of this beautiful island and its wonderful coastline.

Alistair has only recently started painting.  He is self taught, and experimented with watercolours before moving to Acrylics. It was only recently in 2017, that the opportunity existed for him to be able to take his painting more seriously and specialise in the scenes of Ireland. He developed a website to show off his paintings and was amazed at the amount of interest shown in his works from across the world.  From his early success, he developed a more professionally styled website to exhibit and sell his works. Alistair is a member of “Visual Artists Ireland” and “Island Painters” in Enneskillen. He recently exhibited some of his paintings at the Mountshannon Arts Festival in 2018. In moving ashore during the winter months, it has allowed him more room to expand, paint from photographs collected on his travels and develop a personal style with his Acrylic paints that reflect his often dark state.