Visual Inspiration
The lead photograph in last week’s email showed a Sorolla painting entitled “The White Boat”. At the time I thought it was perhaps too personal a choice and would be easily passed over by many of our readers. But no! People loved it. And in perhaps one of my favourite pieces of correspondence this year, Peter replied to me from Maine, USA with a photograph as an attachment.
![7A0D503D-95E1-47C8-BDB2-022F5029A97B_1_105_c[1].jpeg](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f83c5947bb62b2036f18924/1756388283297-OM0SWTK8KYZOAM1OQ5UI/7A0D503D-95E1-47C8-BDB2-022F5029A97B_1_105_c%5B1%5D.jpeg)
The text was short and to the point.
“My late father fresh out of the Navy after WWII, courting my mother by taking her sailing on a 90ft wooden schooner on the coast of Maine.”
I guess there is nothing new about young men swimming naked off old boats… but then it struck me. The resounding similarities are not in the stlye of boat …or the medium… or the composition … but in the shared joy that oozes from the imagery. I can feel their visceral pleasure across the years and the miles.
Following the first email Peter send me some more information about his father. Reading the words and seeing the imagery I feel a regrat at never having met him. Thank you for sharing Peter!
Hi Mark
The connection jumped at me the instant I saw that lovely painting. For a little background: my father, Converse Owen Smith, (known as Owen) was born in 1916, setting the stage for his young adult life be part of WWII. His family roots are deep in the maritime compost of coastal Maine, as the photo would suggest. He served in the US Navy on everything from the carrier Hornet (CV-8) to APc17, a 107ft wooden light coastal “all purpose carrier” or as they euphemistically called them “apple carts”, built at Camden Shipbuilding in 1942. This was his first command and he cut his captain’s teeth delivering her from Camden to Sydney AU, in company with 11 other APc’s.
He followed the post war baby boom culture, and with my mother Joan (pronounced Joanne) produced 6 of us between 1953 to 1965.
He passed away from heart attack in 1968, aged 52, leaving my mother with six children under the age of 15. We grew up in Camden, I did work for a time at the old Camden Shipbuilding, then Wayfarer Marine, both as a carpenter and rigger.
Mark, I would be honored for Owen’s joyous bowsprit hang to be used in anything SWS publishes, he would have laughed at the thought.
Warm regards,
Peter
