Roy Parkinson played a significant role in Brisbane art circles until his death in 1945, at the age of 44. He studied at Brisbane’s Central Technical College under FJ Martyn Roberts and privately with Hubert Jarvis and William Bustard. Parkinson was noted for his expressive seascapes; The Island boat evokes the romance of coastal life, while its simplified style captures what many Australian artists of the 1920s and 1930s regarded as ‘modern art’.