Traditional Canal FolK Art

What is Canal Folk Art?

Narrow boat painting, or canal boat art is a traditional British folk art. This highly decorative folk art once adorned the working narrow boats of the inland waterways of Britain. Canal ware, barge ware, or gift ware, are used to describe decorated trinkets, and household items, rather than the decorated narrow boats.

Canal ware is typified by strong vibrant contrasting colours, stylised roses and castle scene panels. Traditional barge ware items are highly decorated, with little blank space in the design. No-one really knows how this British folk art began. Its origins appear to be in the late 1700s when Britain's inland waterways were at their busiest - similar castle scenes and styles of painting can be found on cheap mass-produced items of the day.

Canal Folk Art by Naj

Below are examples of past works and commsissions for hand painted canal ware, featuring Naj's own designs. You can also view some further examples of personalised canal ware on My Depictions blog.

Barge ware can be hand painted to order, including small items such as door plaques, plates and house signs.

There are many poorly decorated items claiming to be canal ware available cheaply. Sorry, but Naj does not do barge ware at bargain basement prices!

If you are interested in ordering custom canal art ware or have any enquiries, please

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