Arts and Yachts 38 years strong

Tue, 08/14/2018 - 11:45am

    The three-day, 38th annual Arts and Yachts Art Show and Sale at the Hodgdon Yachts Southport boatyard featured 24 artists.

    Among the many artists demonstrating their crafts Saturday was John Seitzer painting a scene from Love Cove. In the midst of all his work on display and for sale was a painting titled “Icons,” done last year in nearly the same spot Seitzer was found at this year’s show.

    Ron Riml shared two of his model ships – one of a Thames River steamer, Topaz, from the turn of the 19th century and another of a Napoleanic era British warship, Bomb Ketch.

    Maybe this year’s show should have been called Arts, Charts and Yachts. Carl and Lynn Welshman’s Harbour Lights gave an imaginative blend of art and the nautical with a creative spin on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) charts. Carl marks the lighthouses and buoys with small LED lights which flash in correspondence with the US Coast Guard times. He personalizes them with steady blue lights signifying anything from home to an office to a mooring, he said.

    “Each chart has its own registered serial number. They are totally unique. You can't find anybody doing this like this anywhere. The registered serial number is a good idea because the value of these charts is increasing on the average of about $100 a year.”

    A chart of Narragansett Bay, in the Newport, Rhode Island area, stood apart from two others of Penobscot Bay and Southport. Asked if he has ever been commissioned by anyone like the Vanderbilt or Rockefeller families, Welshman said more than one of his charts hangs on the walls of a DuPont family home.

    “The DuPont family actually got me started. The Fisher's Island and Long Island Sound area is an enclave for many family names … They are still there, different families, and Chip DuPont found us. He has bought quite a few charts.”

    Carl said he and Lynn believe “the number one resident of Kennebunkport” owns one of their charts as well. The Welshmans received a call from a gentleman asking if Harbour Lights could do a chart of Kennebunkport and if it could be personalized with a light at Walker’s Point. He asked if they had ever heard of Walker’s Point.

    “I said 'Oh, yes' and I'm thinking it didn't sound like George or Barbara on the phone,” Carl chuckled. “We got to deliver right to the compound … It was fun. So we do get to see some nice places and meet great people and that's it.”

    The Welshmans have created over 700 charts in the 10 years since he retired as an executive of Rogers Corporation.

    Clients anywhere in New England get a personal delivery. “We've done interesting areas,” Carl said. “We've done Ireland, France, Australia, but mostly New England. We've done every Maine chart … We enjoy what we're doing and we have been told that we are 'that' retired, nautically oriented couple who found the perfect niche.”