Marine Artist Russ Kramer
Russ Kramer’s painting of Gil Smith’s Mariam.
Russ Kramer is another artist who has also become fascinated by catboats, specifically the Whirlwind II. Kramer is considered one of the most prominent marine artists in the US and is known for his near life-like paintings of boats ranging from historic schooners to modern day mega yachts.
“I met Yarrow several years ago when I did a painting of the original Whirlwind.” The original Whirlwind being a J-boat built in 1930 by Thorne’s great-grandfather, Landon Thorne.
Thorne ended up purchasing the print from Kramer and asked the artist if he would be interested in doing a painting of a catboat that he was building called Whirlwind II.
“I’m kind of an armchair historian and I like good stories of people on the water from way back.” Said Kramer. “So right from the beginning I was intrigued by the whole project.” He continued.
Russ Kramer painting.
For Kramer’s commissions he often will do a deep dive into the history of the boat in order to provide better context to the painting, producing richly colored historical scenes – as if he had been there himself.
“He [Thorne] told me where the original design was built and by whom and a little bit about the history,” said Kramer. “I kind of approached it originally as a little boat portrait.” He continued, but he soon became fascinated by Gil Smith and catboats in general and the project became more elaborate.
“I began to do some research online.” He said, looking at archives from the Long Island Museum (LIM), the Greater Patchogue Historical Society and even at the Library of Congress.
“There was a pretty good amount of detail about the yard and photographs from 1880 and 1890 that showed the buildings with his name on the buildings and boats in the yard and workers,” said Kramer. “I just love scenes like that,” he continued.
Kramer was also intrigued by how Smith’s wife was an integral part of his business, sewing sails for the catboats when not taking care of their six children.
He ended up painting a scene that included Smith’s wife and the launching of Mariam, a catboat Smith named after her. “I kind of imagined this scene where the original boat is being launched and she is all dressed for the day.” He said.
“In my mind it would have been something to celebrate and some of the townspeople and friends and family would have showed up and kind of would have made a big deal out of the launching.” He continued.
The final painting, called “Launching Day – MARIAM, 1897” has Mrs. Smith at the tiller of the boat while Mr. Smith waves to the crowd as their son, Asa, hoists the main sail.
Kramer found it intriguing how Mr. Smith pivoted his business from producing oyster boats to the more lucrative racing catboat business.
“He sort of cornered the market on it by designing and building the best and the fastest,” said Kramer. The marine artist is looking forward to seeing the boat in the water and sailing. It will be almost like seeing his painting come to life.
“I love the boat, the lines are amazing.” He said.
To learn more about Kramer, check out his website here.