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December Issue 2007
Kensington-Stobart Gallery in Charleston, SC, Features Works by John Stobart
Kensington-Stobart
Gallery in Charleston, SC, will be presenting an exhibit of paintings
by maritime artist, John Stobart, including a new painting of
Charleston, Loading Cotton Alongside the Exchange c. 1820.
The exhibit opens on Dec. 7 and continues through Dec. 31, 2007.
Stobart has again recaptured the beauty and nuances of an era long gone. His extraordinary skill and eloquent story telling through the canvas and brush reveals a different world once hosted by our ancestors, who thrived because of the ship-borne commerce and made Charleston our great inheritance. His latest painting Loading Cotton Alongside the Exchange c. 1820, awakens a wistful desire to return to a former time in Charlestonian life. By recapturing a time of cobblestone streets along busy wharfs, Stobart reminds Americans of the glorious days when countless waterfront towns and cities came to life because of sail and tender. Stobart has expended many hours in careful research to aid him in bringing to us a romantic nostalgia of our harbor and our streets.
The name John Stobart is preeminent in the world of maritime art. Born in 1929 and raised in Leicester, England, he showed an early aptitude for creativity. His father recognized his son's talent for art and enrolled him in Derby College of Art in 1946. In this new environment he achieved high honors and a county scholarship to London's prestigious Royal Academy Schools. As a student, he began to exhibit small landscapes painted in the countryside outside London and along the river Thames.
After graduation, Stobart sailed to South Africa. During his voyage he sketched the twelve exotic ports at which the passenger-cargo ship anchored. Here the idea came to him to borrow the plans for new vessels being built. Using the plans and the sketches from his voyage as backgrounds, he painted the new vessels and sold the originals to the shipping companies. Within two years his paintings of ships in foreign ports hung on the walls of some fifteen shipping company boardrooms in London.
In 1957, Stobart emigrated to Canada where his paintings attracted the interest of shipping companies along the St. Lawrence River. In 1965 he came to New York with four paintings of sailing ships he hoped would be well received at a few carefully chosen galleries. He was offered a one-man show by the Wunderlich family, founders of the Kennedy Galleries, who also encouraged him to pursue his notion to recreate the American harbor scenes in the days of the great clipper era. Over the next fifteen years the Wunderlichs hosted another seven one-man shows, all virtual sellouts. In the years to follow, the name "Stobart" would become synonymous with the rediscovery of the nation's lost ports.
Because Stobart's original paintings were going into private collections, he initiated the idea of publishing limited edition prints of some of his more important works. He did this so more people would be able to enjoy his scenes. To accomplish this he founded Maritime Heritage Prints. Now in control of the production of his prints, Stobart demanded that the ultimate in lithographic standards be used in the publication of his prints, embodying the same sense of dedication that is evident in his originals.
In 1989, Stobart used the profits from Maritime Heritage Prints to create The Stobart Foundation. The foundation awards scholarships to qualified students who excel in painting from life. For many years, Stobart has been concerned about today's aspiring art student and the influences from art establishments with a bias against the traditional teaching of the fundamentals of drawing and painting. This foundational tradition is evident in his highly acclaimed PBS series, John Stobart's WorldScape.
For further information check our SC Commercial
Gallery listings, call the gallery at 843/937-8560 or visit (www.kensingtonstobart.com).
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Copyright© 2007 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston
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