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Maritime artist John Stobart has had an interesting life. Born in 1929 in Leicester, England, and raised by his maternal grandmother, his travels have taken him to extraordinary places. From his humble beginnings, he has risen to stardom as one of the world's leading artists. His paintings of nautical scenes, ships and harbors are recognized as some of the best.

Stobart's father was a pharmacist, and his mother died in childbirth, so all of his early influence was from his grandmother and the different housekeepers that she hired. He floundered in school, but excelled creatively, so his father agreed to enroll him in the Derby College of Art in September, 1946, where he excelled and earned a scholarship to London's Royal Academy, where other artists such as John Constable and J.W.M. Turner had studied. Stobart was one of only four students that year to be accepted.

When he graduated, Stobart set sail for South Africa to visit his father, who, in 1950, had purchased a pharmacy in Mulawayo, in what was then Southern Rhodesia (later Zimbabwe). Aboard the passenger-cargo vessel, the young artist's imagination came to life. He sketched each of the twelve exotic ports that they visited, and came up with the brilliant idea of obtaining plans of new vessels that were under construction and painting them with the backdrops of these foreign ports. He would then market the paintings to the proud new owners of the vessels, with the idea that the paintings would be suitable for board room displays and that the prints could be used on promotional materials that the shipping companies would create. Fifteen different shipping companies purchased artwork from him over the next two years—a remarkable success for a young artist.

Stobart left London in 1957, moving to Canada to get away form what he felt was an environment of class prejudice. Over the next ten years, he created artwork for shipping companies along the St. Lawrence River. He returned home to England once a year to keep track of his British customers. In 1965, he made his first trip to the United States, taking with him four paintings of sailing ships which he hoped to show to galleries in New York City. On his first day in New York, he was offered a one-man show by the Wunderlich family, owners of Kennedy Galleries. They encouraged him to pursue his interest of painting the American harbor scene in the days of the great clipper ships, a subject that Stobart discovered had not been covered by his contemporaries.

The Wunderlichs gave Stobart seven one-man shows over the next fifteen years, all of which were sell-outs. When he realized that his originals were disappearing into private collections where they would not be shared with the rest of the world, Stobart decided to to publish limited edition prints of some of his works. He took this project on himself, establishing Maritime Heritage Prints in 1976, hoping to produce reproductions of his works that are of the highest quality possible. In 1989, he created The Stobart Foundation, which awards scholarships to qualified students who excel in painting outdoor on-site scenes in oil, and he has continued to produce his popular series of paintings of the historic ports of America.

Bluewater Books & Charts is proud to announce that we now keep several of John Stobart's prints in stock on a regular basis and we are able to order more at the customer's request. We suggest that you call us or visit the Fort Lauderdale store to view them. They are spectacular renditions of scenes from ports, such as Annapolis, MD (above), that many of our customers know by heart, and serve to prove that the legacy left by beautiful ships of the past will live on.