"As a cabin boy on a sailing lugger for to go and hunt the shoals of herring" This is a non-obvious phrase present in the lyrics of the popular Irish song: Shoals Of Herring. I like to think that it's refered to some particular period of our life. Where you hunt a particular goal but it always slips away as if you try to catch a shoal of herring. For this painting I was inspired by the song version of Luke Kelly: http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=uGP2oJnjyVw I like to think about him, in this small boat, thinking about life and peacefully singing these verses.