Trawlers and Tugs Blog

A rambler and a ‘gambler’ is maritime artist Janne Matter, now living in Phoenix but with both Atlantic and Pacific roots as well. She especially is well known for her paintings of classic and wooden boats in oil and acrylic.

You can read a lot about Matter’s personal journey into art on her website, concerning a serious illness that moved her out of a key role in the Pennsylvania art gallery world and into becoming a professional artist herself. This is the ‘gambler’ part. Note the frequency of vertical format in her work, a contemplative mode.

She gives special credit to art instructor Michael Heberlein and mentor David Brumbaugh for helping her make this change. (See a little about Heberlein here.)

The life challenges had only just begun, of course. Eventually she took a degree in art at Michigan State University. Another major change in her life sent her to the Northwest, where fishing boats became art subjects.

Her wide travels have resulted also in numerous venues where you can see her work across the country, including Vista Gallery, in Tahoe Vista, CA; Art for the Home Gallery, South Lake Tahoe, CA; Sierra Boat Company, Lake Tahoe, CA; Tahoe Yacht Club, Tahoe City, CA; Silver Heron Gallery, Depoe Bay, OR; Northern Lights Gallery, Racine, WI; Odyssey Maritime Discovery Center, Seattle, WA; Salish Sea Expeditions, Bainbridge Island, WA; and Gallery of Dreams, St David, AZ. Now that is a line-up of galleries and sales venues!

She loves her high-keyed palette! To see more of the very bright, colorful paintings that are her signature, check out Matter’s website.

Carol Lois Haywood

SIDE NOTE: Please consider making a link from your blog or site to “Trawlers and Tugs”! Those who do will be rewarded with a free 8 x 10 boat-art print. Just email me carol@trawlersntugs.com. (1) Give the URL where “Trawlers and Tugs” link appears and (2) include your snail mail address for receiving your gift.

Others who would rather get their free gift as a desktop wallpaper image: (1) send the URL where the “Trawlers and Tugs” link appears to carol@trawlersntugs.com–and (2) add your email address.

Thank you, readers and commentors, for your support!

Tagged acrylicist, Arizona, Janne Matter, oil painter, Pacific Northwest, Phoenix

This Texas artist’s watercolor technique just blows me away with admiration! So much life and love come through his creations too. Pat Glenn also plays the banjo in the old 5-string style and sings cowboy songs. He confesses to reading cowboy poetry as well.

Glenn notes he is a fan of Robert Yonke and Lee Murdock. . .both painters and musical performers recently featured on this blog. . .as well as other favorites like Gordon Bok, Ann Mayo Muir, and Ed Trickett.

Glenn grew up right on the Texas coast, in the midst of his lifelong artistic inspiration.

To see Glenn’s work in person there are two main galleries to check out: The Tradewinds, Sixth Street, Yemah, TX, and The Admiralty, Strand Street, Galveston, TX.

Regular events on his art calendar include June, Kerrville, TX, Texas Arts & Crafts Fair; July, Rockport, TX, Texas Art Festival; and October, San Antonio, TX, River Art Group Show.

His online gallery is updated periodically: see Glenn’s website, “Texas Watercolors”–and sign his guestbook if you will! You may also see his work hanging at River Art Gallery, San Antonio, TX. I am trying to come up with an excuse for a trip to the Texas coast myself to meet this warm-hearted man, who also loves painting fishing boats!

Carol Lois Haywood

THANKS A MILLION, EVERYONE!–for your links to “Trawlers and Tugs“–and also for your comments! With your help, this blog’s readership and web presence is growing rapidly.

Tagged fishing boat, Pat Glenn, Texas, watercolor

“When I see something and it ’strikes me,’ I paint it.”–Mark Peterson

Peterson’s central theme and inspiration is the passing of things. He finds his justification in the invaluable record of human life created by artists who lived before the invention of the camera. However, he finds this motive not easily understood by the public.

Now a Susanville, CA resident, he has lived a nomadic life. His early years moving from town to town gave him an unusual perspective. Because of his father’s work as a professional surveyor, Peterson has lived in about 35 states and visited all but four.

Absorbing the morals, values, standards, local history and traditions by living in numerous places, Peterson feels he understands the different aspects of America as few others do. All this gets poured into his art.

This artist has discovered that his kind of devotion to creating balance and harmony out of the subject, color, light, value, dynamics, and textural surface is rare. His is realism with a difference!

No doubt the wide ranging exposure to the vast landscape of North America does come through his work to capture the viewer. His boat pictures are acrylic on canvas, with a wide range of scale: from 6″ x 9″ to 48″ x 48″! He has achieved many awards and honors for his fine painting. His work was celebrated at a November 2008, New York gallery show at Ico Gallery in Manhattan, NY. Learn more about that and enjoy more of Peterson’s fishing boat pictures online today!

Carol Lois Haywood

Tagged acrylic, California, Mark Peterson, New York, realism, Susanville