---''The Ranger Capturing Drake" by Derek G.M. Gardner, watercolor, 20 x 24 inches.
The 1987 Mystic International by J. Russell Jinishian
Nineteen eighty-seven marked the eighth annual Mystic International, an exhibit that has come to be regarded as one of the single most important juried exhibits in the field. Marine artists from around the world are invited to enter painting, drawing, sculpture, scrimshaw or graphic design whose theme relates to any aspect of the maritime experience. Since the beginning, the gallery's review process¡ has had the assistance of some of the most distinguished members of the maritime art community. This year's jury included America's Cup navigator, Halsey Herreshoff; the marine artist and co-founder of the Museum of Yachting, John Mecray; and former senior curator of The Mariners' Museum, John Sands. This year's Mystic International includes ninetyseven pieces by eighty-four artists from the United States, England, Ireland, West Germany and Australia.
A great many pieces came to us this year from England where we established contact with many artists in 1982 by sponsoring the first American exhibition of the Royal Society of Marine Artists . These pieces were terrifically varied, from the scholarly authenticity of the painting of the American privateer Ranger under the command of John Paul Jones capturing the British sloop Drake on 24 April 1778 off Carrickfergus, Ireland, by the dean of English watercolor, Derek Gardner, to the small, jewellike impressionist landscapes of contemporary English riversides by plein air painter Trevor Chamberlain. Two particularly charming watercolors were submitted by Dennis Hanceri who, although a member of the Royal Society of Marine Artists since 1968, was showing for the first time in the gallery . His painting " East Coast, Low Water Near Al burgh" was worked up from many sketches he had made
''Thermopylae at Petropavlovsk' ' by David Thimgan, oil, 20 x 30 inches.
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SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1987-88