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Inspired by tradition, John Stobart serves as our historian and guide to life along the water. To the viewer, it seems that Stobart stood a century ago along the ports and harbors he recreates for us. We can almost feel the effects of the weather and time of day and we learn about our history and our heritage through wonderfully descriptive narratives that have been compared to stories by Mark Twain and Joseph Conrad.

It was as a young art student that Stobart first experienced the work of John Constable and Jean Baptiste-Camille Corot. Constable’s oil sketches told Stobart that he too could develop simplicity and clarity in his work. Corot’s paintings of outdoor subjects and architecture inspired Stobart’s art. In these paintings, Stobart also found a quality of light he had never before seen. The work of these artists deeply affected Stobart and prompted him to define his own artistic style.

Rigorous classical studies enabled Stobart to develop his talent and express his artistic style. At sixteen, Stobart began art studies at the College of Arts and Crafts in his hometown of Derby, England. Graduating four years later with high honors, Stobart earned a highly coveted scholarship to England’s oldest and most prestigious art academy, the Royal Academy Schools in London. The artist completed another five years of studies in the very academy where Constable studied. And he learned how to create a truth similar to that which he admired in the work of Constable and Corot.

When he completed his academic career, Stobart traveled by ship to his fathers’ new home in South Africa. While aboard the Braemer Castle, Stobart realized that his artistic future laid in a passion for ships and the sea he had discovered at eight years old. Stobart painted The Braemer Castle and quickly sold it to the Union Castle Line. Soon, the artist was on a tack that would carry his paintings of modem ships into boardrooms across England and North America.

For ten years, Stobart divided his time between England and Canada to satisfy the demands of his collectors. Then he made a discovery that would draw his talents in a new direction. Stobart learned that artists had recorded only a few nineteenth century American ports and harbors. Newly inspired, he took a six month sabbatical to learn about this subject He later began the body of work that now helps to fill a void in American art and is his best known.

When Stobart had completed just four paintings, he traveled to New York City in search of a gallery that would show these new works. Luckily, his seat on the train was next to a man who held a prominent position in America’s art world. This stranger suggested the Kennedy Galleries to Stobart, and Stobart took his advice. When the artist showed his paintings to Margaret Wunderlich at Kennedy Galleries, he immediately received an offer for a one-man show. This and several subsequent shows were all sell-outs.

Stobart then began an effort to bring his artistic ideals to a wider audience. He has done this through his art and through other means. His paintings and limited edition prints are collected around the world and seen by visitors of the Peabody Museum in Massachusetts and the Portland Museum in Maine. John Stobart’s Worldscape I and II video series have enabled him to teach painting to a vast television audience. Stobart has also educated readers through his books on maritime painting. The Stobart Foundation continues to sponsor young painters who are influenced by the history and tradition of the open air painters. Through these many efforts, art lovers around the world can appreciate a bit of the art and life of the past through the art of today.