Previously: Hans Skalagard

“Taut Lines and Full Canvas:
Pacific Coast Lumber Schooners”

Works of Master Maritime Painter Hans Skalagard

The Art of Hans Skalagard is featured in the Petaluma Museum’s newest exhibit entitled “Taut Lines and Full Canvas: Pacific Coast Lumber Schooners”. A collection of fifteen dramatic paintings focusing on the local lumber schooners which were critical to California’s lumber demand of the late 1800’s. “The demands of navigating the Pacific could be quite intense for the crew on board a lumber schooner”, explains Joe Noriel, Museum President. “Mr. Skalagards life like renderings give the viewer a sense on what life may have been like aboard these heavily loaded masted vessels, sailing in often very unpredictable weather”. The paintings are part of a traveling show coming from various venues including the Maritime Museum of Monterey.

Mr. Skalagard, began painting at the age of 8, and at the age of 14 began to carry on the family’s seafaring tradition, becoming an apprentice seaman on a square rigged ship. Thus, he began his experiences that allowed him to create accurate paintings of such ships.

Hans grew in experience and served on merchant ships during World War II convoys. He survived the sinking of four (4) ships in six (6) years of this war, enabling him to draw on these experiences and paint a series of ten “North Atlantic Convoy Scenes”. Hans had initially moved to the United States in 1943 but returned to Denmark after the war to study at the Royal Academy in Copenhagen. In New York, he had a one man show in 1954, where he had studied with the marine painter, Anton Otto Fisher. In 1961, his works were exhibited at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, California. He remained in California, becoming a fixture in his Carmel, California gallery, “Skalagard’s Square-Rigger”.

He has had numerous one man shows both in the United States and in Europe. His paintings are hung in many public buildings. Examples of such locations include the Naval Post Graduate School in Monterey, California, the Los Angeles County Maritime Museum, the Allen Knight Maritime Museum and galleries in Norway, Denmark and his native Faeroe Islands. His paintings are owned by admirals and collectors world over. He is the holder of six gold medals for his work. Hans spent over thirty years at sea and his paintings accurately reflect this knowledge of sailing ships and the weather at sea.

An artist reception will be held Saturday, July 24 at 3pm – food, drink, merriment! Music by Dorothy Barth, Violin/Flute – Sea Shanties and more!

The exhibit runs until September 5th, 2010.

For more information please contact the Petaluma Museum at 778-4398.