Suggesting a view of the Florida Keys or possibly the Caribbean, this interesting composition by Anthony Thieme shows a local working craft, most likely a shrimper or sponge boat, wrapped in close enough to shore to be moored to a tall pine tree.

With headsails drying in the sun, the boat's crewmen busy themselves on deck at the daily tasks required to maintain a working vessel. Under the bowsprit Thieme has used soft greens to capture the translucence of shallow water on a sand bottom, gently fading as it extends to the small cay across the channel where a working schooner lies bow in to the shore.

Relatively obscure waterfront scenes from areas such as this capture and record common elements of the day to day existence of life on and around the water. Anthony Thieme enjoyed creating views of many of the unsung harbors along America's coastline, capturing their essence with his own brand of eloquence and subtle charm.

It is subjectively proven that artistic inspiration strikes individuals in varied and unique ways. In this single painting, an appreciative audience may examine how the early luminous artist brought forth a work of accomplished artistic beauty from the subject matter of the rescue of a ship which has lost most of her rig. The sense is one of relief, not disaster, and further examination illustrates just how expertly Curtis was at portraying complex emotion’s with subtle suggestive touches.

The weather holds as a fair day with an etheral fog lingering about while a coastal schooner takes passengers aboard. The danger of being stranded or even sinking has faded, and gone is the zephyr which de-masted the sailing ship. The weather has turned so fair as to make it possible for a sailing barque and sidewheel steamer to continue on to their destinations beyond the two ships, which certainly are in view to the distressed ship at distance.

Curtis is considered a rising stars of marine art; all quite unusual when it is marked that he painted more than 100 years ago. His re-emergence well established, his original takes on painting views of Boston area ships and harbors made him a local favorite then and an a nationally sought after artist today. He is one of America’s premier marine luminous artists.

The crowd is out strolling along the Long Pier of Trouville, the first and premier of the French beach resorts south of the Seine River. The age has begun to awakened beyond Quaker and Victorian sensibilities, and bathing and sea-side resorts along the Normandy coast are in full fashion. The Long Pier was built from 1885 to 1889, straight out from the center of the city. Partially on the account that it is a 5-hour train ride from Paris, the first French coastal hotels established here in the mid-19th Century to success.

A charming work with a vast depth of field for its size, the view is from standing on the pier looking back at the city. The changing tents are of a more permanent sort, an evolutionary design from the original bathing wagons used by French society which allowed the women passengers to stay sheltered right up to the water’s edge. The beach would have numerous changing tents of a temporary nature.

Narratives of people at leisure are widely enjoyed for the depictions of yesterday with the reminiscent charm each inspires. With this in mind, it is interesting to note that it was important to Loir to capture the changing face of modern France as the 20TH Century approached, and to hold artistic witness to the everyday courtesies and actions of his national citizens.

On a well traveled path, the artist set his canvas to capture a view of the Italian fishing village of Cattora, believed to be a remote portion of what is now Greater Naples and the Isola D’Ischia on the horizon beyond. Note the moorish influence to the architecture in the small village and the red terra cotta rooftops, while the virgin forest grows right to the town.

A Mediterranean lateen-rigged fishing boat, with the rust-red & light beige sails often found on craft in these waters, cuts a perpendicular line to the inlet. Small commercial fisheries still exist today along the Italian shores, keeping their markets supplied with some of the freshest seafood in Europe. The people onshore are a bit less ambitious about their quests. As a woman walks the path, another pair catch a brief rest while they talk with mule driver. All four are dressed in colorful, late 19th century peasant garb.

Dommersen’s familiarity with many European regions led him to feel right at home throughout Europe. While most of his scenes are Dutch, his Italian works share a pastoral quality of soft illumination and relaxing emotion. Almost always of the coastal waters, he expertly combines landscape and atmosphere to paint compositions which translate the entirety of an area. Cattora has since grown and evolved into a much greater metropolis, but will remain ever charming in his view.

A bright afternoon along the coast of the Netherlands sets this marine narrative by Dommersen. No less than four fishing crews have chosen to land near the Tholen Lighthouse to sell their day’s catch. The foremost crew has captured the small market of women waiting across the stream, and two masts denote the presence of others just beyond the lighthouse. The prospect of quickly selling the herring and cod in the fourth ship’s hold seems slight today.

Dommersen, a Dutch national, embraced his homeland for its vast network of inlets, channels and rivers. The Netherlands hold a great shoreline to area ratio, and the low elevation along the North Sea ensures fine tidal access to much of it. The country’s dominant economic industry has always been fishing. These crews may sail along the Ooster Schelde waterway and arrive at the town of Bergen Op Zoom, where the tall church spire rise out of the horizon five miles distant.

Using tight realism with a focus on accurate scale and exacting reflective qualities, the artist excels in presenting the local character of the land. From the uniform white cloth bonnets and colorful fabrics of the women to the deep-rouge of the sail cloth, it all accents the central feature of the stone lighthouse. Note the old fortification wall the structure is built upon, a remnant from the days when holland warred with her neighbors, usually the English. By this day, the whale-oil light atop the exterior staircase would welcome the British ships and all other visitors.

In this large and appealing seascape, Samuel Phillips Jackson has portrayed a subject close to his heart, the tranquil shoreline of west Cornwall bay. The artist spent much of his time painting in and around the coasts of Devon and Cornwall and the majority of his works feature splendid views of these pleasant regions.

Jackson has employed in this work a talent for soft coloration and muted brush technique to bring out the subtle shadings and strong textures of an ever changing shoreline. The painting shows great depth in its composition and the artist has animated the overall scene with a gentle rolling surf and the ever present seabirds.

As a painter of sea and shore, Jackson excelled amongst his peers. His paintings show a closeness to nature that he developed through endless hours spent observing the watery environment and striving to capture its elusive character. The final product of his endeavors are the paintings that survive today in some of the world's most important collections.