bleak February mornings to share a simple breakfast and endure cold winter winds on the water to capture the spirit of these hardy sailors as they work the oyster beds. Early on, he sailed on his first working skipjack, the Elsworth, hauling dredges, culling oysters, and earning the respect of captain and crew. During the 1980s, he sailed aboard nearly all the skipjacks afloat. John has gone into backwater boatyards to learn firsthand the art of maintaining these hundred year-old craft to keep them afloat and working for ‘just one more season.’ On the days when it was too foul to dredge, he has sat with captains around wood-burning stoves listening to the stories of what the Bay was like when the oysters were disease- free and abundant, the crabs were plentiful, and the waters were graced by clouds of working sails. The accuracy with which these boats and their working rigs are depicted in his paintings is a tes- tament to his firsthand experience.” In 2003, the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum exhibited 27 of Barber’s paintings. He was elected a Fellow of the American Society of Marine
Artists in 2007 and in 2009 he was awarded the Distinguished Service Award by the National Maritime Historical Society in Washington DC for his efforts in depicting the vanishing ways of life on the Chesapeake Bay and his environmental and philan- thropic endeavors to save the Chesapeake. All these honors are particularly meaningful in light of the fact that some guidance “experts” he encountered in his early years told him he could never make a living as a painter. Famed TV journalist and yachtsman, the late Walter
Cronkite, commissioned John to create a painting of his be- loved sailing yacht Wyntje in 1999. In preparation for the piece, the artist sailed from Annapolis, Maryland to Martha’s Vineyard,
Walter Cronkite and John Barber sailing Cronkite’s yacht the Wyntje off Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts in 1999.
Massachusetts. The painting depicted their arrival into the Edgartown Harbor on Tuesday, June 1. Kathy arrived the following day and the couple enjoyed five more days as guests of Betsy and Walter at their summer home on the harbor. The Barbers attended the unveiling of the painting in that year at the Cronkite’s Annual Christmas party at their home in New York City. Perhaps the best way to appreciate and understand John
Barber is to savor his own words. In the epilogue of his book John M. Barber’s Chesapeake he wrote: “In my paintings, I have tried to portray the Bay as I see her-fragile and threatened in many ways, yet tough and unforgiving in others, especially to those who fail to heed her warnings and know her moods. My art shares the majestic beauty of this irreplaceable natural treasure,
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October/November 2012
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