Twentieth-Century American Yachting: A Perfect Blend of Art and Science

Description

Artist and sailor Thurston Huntting (Hunt) Smith spent his life on the water. As a child, he was exposed to some of the greatest examples of American yacht design and surrounded by some of the finest yachtsmen, sail makers and boat designers of the twentieth century. Join him for a pictorial exploration of yacht design and how it changed with the advent of the aviation field in the mid-1900s with Smith at the Jesup Memorial Library on Friday, July 27 at 7 p.m.
 
Smith’s talk will feature historic photographs as well his paintings to show how the sailing yachts of this period are a perfect illustration of how form follows function. He will also highlight some of the boat builders of the 1940’s, ‘50s and ‘60s, and talk about how new materials, metals and fabrics, and the enormous advancements in the field of aviation, gave rise to dramatic changes in the yachting world. Smith will also speak about how photography allowed people to know what the maritime world actually looked like. Previously, on-site painting of boats was practically impossible and early paintings were mostly works of the imagination.
 
Smith grew up on a small island near Oyster Bay, New York and says he knew how to sail before he knew how to ride a bicycle. His paintings cover the glory days of American yachting and various other maritime activities from Downeast Maine to the Bahamas. His work has been shown at the Mystic Seaport, the Herreshoff Marine Museum, the New York Yacht Club, Florida’s Society of the Four Arts, and numerous private galleries. He now lives on the water in Steuben, Maine.
 
For more information, contact the Jesup at 207-288-4245 or mrice@jesuplibrary.org.