Looking Astern

"Maine built more ships, by total tonnage, than any other state on the East Coast, and by 1855, a third of the vessels produced in the United States were built in Maine. Down-easters from midcoast Maine carried miners to the California goldfields, ice to India, and wheat to Europe." —From the Introduction

"The aim of the artist," William Faulkner wrote, "is to arrest motion, which is life. A hundred years later, a stranger looks at it, and it moves again." Nationally recognized maritime artist Loretta Krupinski keeps that thought in mind as she researches and executes her beautiful canvases on nautical subjects. In Looking Astern: An Artist's View of Maine's Historic Working Waterfronts, her beautifully rendered paintings show fascinating details of Maine's waterfront towns in the decades when fishing and quarrying and shipbuilding were the backbone of the coastal economy. Historic photographs and informative text about how Maine people made their living 70 to 150 years ago round out this rich and varied portrayal of a past way of life.

About the Author:

Originally from Long Island, New York, Loretta moved first to Old Lyme, Connecticut, and then to South Thomaston, Maine. After graduating with a bachelor's degree in fine arts from Syracuse
University, Loretta worked for many years as an illustrator and graphic designer, but eventually developed her unique dual career as a maritime artist and illustrator of children's books (27 at last count, some of which she also wrote).

She is also an avid gardener, and in 2006 published her first book with Down East: A Maine Artist's Garden Journal.

Loretta is Fellow and board member of the American Society of Marine Artists, and a six-time winner at the International Marine Artists Exhibition at Mystic Gallery. Her work has been exhibited at the Peabody Essex Museum (Salem, MA), the Mystic Seaport Museum (CT), the Frye Art Museum (Seattle), Maryland Historical Society Museum (Baltimore), the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens (Jacksonville, FL), The Mariners' Museum (Norfolk, VA), Maine Maritime Museum (Bath, ME) and Penobscot Marine Museum (Searsport, ME).

 Watch Loretta on 207 with Rob Caldwell:

  [6]