A little bit of art and history is coming together at Jamestown Settlement in March as the history museum celebrates plein-air art.
From March 7 through April 26, artists from the American Society of Marine Artists are coming to create and feature maritime art for its 18th National Exhibition, according to a news release from Jamestown Settlement.
The American Society of Marine Artists is a 40-year-old organization, making it the nation’s oldest and largest nonprofit dedicated to marine art and history, according to the organization’s website.
Every three years, the society presents its National Exhibition in museums across the country to highlight the work of artists that represent the best American marine art by juried competition.
There will be 110 works of marine art featured during the exhibit at Jamestown Settlement, including paintings, sculptures and scrimshaw carvings.
There will be five sculptures cast in bronze, a limestone sculpture and two scrimshaw carving in addition to artwork featured in a variety of other mediums, including oil on canvas, watercolor on paper and mixed media.
To kick off the exhibit, there will be a special plein-air, or “paint out,” event from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on March 7 at the Settlement ships’ pier.
During the event, ASMA members will be painting scenes along the James River waterfront with an artistic focus on Jamestown Settlement’s three 1607 re-creation ships, the Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery.
The event is weather dependent.
The three ships, designated “the official fleet of the Commonwealth,” are regularly featured at Jamestown Settlement with one of the trio periodically sailing to other ports as an ambassador for the community and for educational programs.
Each ship is a full-size, square-rigged vessel that serves as a floating classroom for visitors and students to learn about the 1607 voyage to Virginia, life aboard the ship, piloting and navigation.
There will be an illustrated lecture following the plein-air event from award-winning artist Patrick O’Brien from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. on March 7.
O’Brien will describe the research behind his paintings and discuss his studies of the Civil War duel of the ironclads in Hampton Roads.
As an artist, O’Brien has earned the National Maritime Historical Society’s Distinguished Service Award, the prestigious Mystic International Marine Art Exhibition, and the U.S. Naval Academy Museum, which mounted an exhibition in 2010 featuring 28 of his oil paintings.
There will also be a lecture from author Sarah Cash from 3 to 4 p.m. on March 7.
Cash, who co-authored the “John Singer Sargent and the Sea” with Richard Ormond, will discuss Sargent’s marine oils and watercolors.
The artist himself had a lifelong passion for the sea and painted a “remarkable” but little-known collection of work on the subject from his early years to late in life, according to the news release.
Cash is the associate curator of American and British Paintings at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., and previously served as curator of American art at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, director of the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, and assistant curator at the Amon Carter Museum.
The special exhibition will run through April 26 and ticket prices are included in admission to the museum. Tickets are $17.50 for adults, $8.25 for children between the ages of 6 and 12, and free for children younger than 6.
For more information, visit historyisfun.org.
