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PHOTOS COURTESY OF ARTIST

MUTINY. Mike Corcoran’s “The Bounty” is an oil portrait of one the the tall ships that recently graced the waters of Commencement Bay.

Romance of the sea on view at maritime fest art show

By Dave R. Davison

As a species we love the sea – our planet’s salty womb of life. We seem never to tire of gazing upon its undulating, heaving surface. History, romance and melodrama have been played out upon its vast expanse. It is both mysterious and ever so intimate. Poets and musicians sing the siren song of the sea and artists are drawn to its depiction. For evidence of the latter, one need only pay a visit to Tacoma’s own Foss Waterway Seaport and take a good, long gander at the Commencement Bay Maritime Fest Juried Art Show. The show consists of over 90 works of art in all manner of media: oil, acrylic, watercolor, color pencil, and graphite as well as sculptural media.

These barnacle encrusted painters and sculptors offer up a briny feast for their public to behold. Here one may encounter the romance of the days when tall ships ruled the waves. For those still wishing to bask in the afterglow of the recent Tall Ships Festival there is plenty to see. Mike Corcoran’s luminous oil portraits of “The Eagle” and “The Bounty” have an electrical presence. Dianne Gardner has submitted an oil painting of “Lady Washington.”

Tall ships, however, are not the only way to romance the waves. Many of the artists have chosen to depict the more genteel world of yachting and private sail boats. George G. Milliken, for example, took second place for his watercolor entitled “Envy” in which a yachtsman at the helm of his own little boat gazes wistfully across the water at an elegant white yacht in the distance.

The show gives plenty of wall space to depictions of the gritty yet picturesque world of the working waterfront. Nancy Bogni took home first place with “Workhorse,” a masterfully murky watercolor depiction of a tugboat busy at its work. Harold Johnson and Robert Parks are both experts at painting meditative scenes of the working waterfront: fishing fleets at dock on misty mornings, nets and fishing floats.

There are paintings of quiet skiffs and dainty dinghies. Karla Fowler’s “Dories on Display” is a charming scene of yellow dories with green trim tied in a daisy chain to a brooding dock.

Some of the artists take a plunge beneath the waves to show us the creatures that dwell in the deep. Dalin Wiffler, for example, presents plump fishes made of blown glass while Kathy Thurston gives a China ink and watercolor painting of sockeye salmon.

The show also contains several sentimental scenes of sleepy seaside villages such as Bonnie Cargol’s “Norwegian Fishing Village.”

Overall, a sense of nostalgia pervades the show. Nostalgia pulls like rip tide – a syrupy, sweet, and delicious tide, as rich as the colors of John Rizzotto’s still lifes of seashells and knotted ropes and fishing floats that seen to stink of the sea.

The Commencement Bay Maritime Fest Juried Art Show runs through Sept. 14 at Foss Waterway Seaport, located at 705 Dock St. For further information visit www.fosswaterwayseaport.org or call (253) 272-2750.

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