In this portrait, Bellany has paid close attention to the weather-beaten quality of his father's head and hands. These tell most about the character of the sitter and his life. The tattoo on his left arm says 'True love Nancy'. His wife Nancy (the artist's mother) was extremely important to him, to the extent that he gave up being a fisherman in 1951, to alleviate her anxiety, when he was at sea. The sitter rests against what appears to be one of the artist's own paintings, showing fishermen, a reference to the sitter's profession.