Sitka National Historical Park Maritime Artist Mark Myers Visits Sitka NHP

Date: June 20, 2010
Contact: Dusty Kidd, [phone]

The celebrated historic maritime artist Mark Myers discussed the exploration of the Pacific Northwest and his painting of those explorers and their interaction with indigenous people, in a special program offered at 7 pm Friday, July 16, at the Sitka National Historical Park Visitor Center theater.

Myers is a past president of the Royal Society of Marine Artists in Great Britain, and a fellow of the American Society of Marine Artists. He is best known for a series of watercolors depicting explorers such as Perez, Bodega y Quadra, Cook and Vancouver sailing the waters of British Columbia, Oregon, Washington and Alaska, and meeting Tlingit, Haida and other Native peoples.

Myers routinely visits Alaska to see the locations which he captures in his art. He is usually accompanied by veteran Southeast Alaska marine pilot Captain John M. Baldry, a friend of 40 years and a pilot in these waters for the last 29 years. Myers and Baldry met while crewing sailing vessels in the 1960s. Myers’ work has been featured for years in a special one-man series of shows at Seattle’s Kirsten Gallery.