Wow Shelley!

Stefani · Post by **Stefani** » Thu Mar 19, 2009 10:11 pm

I had no idea you could paint too! I am so impressed by all your talents. You are the hostess with the mostest, a great writer, a florist, an expert in a myriad of topics, and now this. Amazing!

http://www.titanicinternationalsociety.org/

Do you sell prints? I really like this painting.

mbhenty · Post by **mbhenty** » Fri Mar 20, 2009 1:12 am

Yes, hey Stefani:

I'm sure we have spoke of this. But as you know I am a collector or Arctic books and Polar studies. When I saw the painting above I knew right away where it came from.

Marshall Drew was a survivor of the Titanic and, if I am not mistaken, went on to be an artist. Though I am not familiar with Mr. Drew he did not paint the painting above.

If you are not familiar with the painting but live in Fairhaven, you may be familiar with the painter William Bradford. Bradford was from Fairhaven, Ma. and had a studio in New Bedford in the late 1850s, and later in New York. He was famous for painting arctic scenes of whaling ships dwarfed by icebergs.

William Bradford:

mbhenty · Post by **mbhenty** » Fri Mar 20, 2009 1:16 am

mbhenty · Post by **mbhenty** » Sun Mar 22, 2009 1:39 pm

Yes, tried finding some visual examples of Marshall Drew's work in this machine but, I had no luck.

Does anyone know the connection between Marshall Drew and Mr. Bradford's arctic painting in the post above? I would imagine that if Drew was successful as an artist it would be very unlikely that he would mimic another artist's work............especially exact duplicates.

Shelley · Post by **Shelley** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 5:40 pm

Actually Marshall Drew was my painting teacher-and yes I did paint the canvas above, and asked Marshall to add a few strokes to the iceberg.The original is called In Polar Seas by Bradford of course. Marshall was my mentor and friend for all too short a time-a lovely man. I have a tribute here to him. http://journeysintime.wordpress.com/mar ... ines-drew/ We enjoyed lecturing together on Titanic for the local schools and civic organizations. Students adored him. We visited over 8,000 students in our years together.
Marshall inspired my love for photography as well. He left over 10,000 images to the Westerly camera club. I treasure some calligraphy he gave me and origami. He lettered Hardy's Convergence of the Twain for me just before he died in June, 1986. On the short list of people who were the greatest influence on my life- Marshall would come in at #2, right after my grandfather. My late father was an artist. I am hoping to paint more in retirement. Marshall left me his books, paintbrushes, and books on origami. Mostly I prefer to paint in oils with landscapes as a subject, but I have painted house portraits for friends. Marshall loved to paint abstracts. Some of his work is in the Titanic Historical Society museum and some on Long Island. I have never made a print of the painting we did of the iceberg. The inspiration for it was the dust cover of a book called Journey of the Iceberg by Richard Brown- and of course the work of Frederick Edwin Church. There is a nice plaque in Fairhaven showing where Bradford's studio was located on the waterfront. I have it on Warps and Wefts.

mbhenty · Post by **mbhenty** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 7:27 pm

Wow

Great stuff Shelly.

You should post your other paintings, or better yet have the Hatchet do an article on your painting. It's pretty amazing.

Below is a copy of William Bradford's, Sailing Ships and Arctic Seas. This copy sits in my personal arctic book collection. Most of the collection is 19th century exploration such as Scott, Shackleton, Peary etc., and I don't have much on modern arctic travels............that is to say from the last 50 years.

Thus, I don't have Richard Brown's book JOURNEY OF THE ICEBERG. I would imagine that book has more to do with the Titanic than the Arctic, though Brown uses Bradford's painting on the cover.

I compared both your painting and the Bradford original. Being that good you should open a studio down on North 2nd Street in New Bedford.

Below are images of Richard Brown's book and Richard Kugler's book on William Bradford. Also included is the original paint by William Bradford, Icebergs in the Arctic.

Shelley · Post by **Shelley** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 8:59 pm

Actually Bradford did all the hard work for me- the lighting, the composition, etc. Making a copy from an original is not as difficult as painting something new from your own mind. I always must paint from life or a photograph or copy. Another Titanic hero of mine, Francis Davis Millet, of East Bridgewater, MASS had to always paint from life. I have done a lot of research on his life and works and visited his studios in D.C. and East Bridgewater, both still in existence.How I admire those people who can create solely from their own inner visions. I assure you, I am a very mediocre, Sunday afternoon artist. My daughter has a great talent and chances are you have seen her work in the grocery store as she has designed food labeling and container art in the US and UK as well as website work and senate and congressional seals. I am a firm believer in artistic ability being an inherited commodity, as is musical ability. For anything I have received, I owe it to my Dad-and some very fine painting teachers over the years. As for the iceberg painting- I was driven to complete it as Marshall was dying and we knew it. It was the last thing I painted in his studio in Westerly on Wednesday nights in the winter of 1986. Marshall said it was the best thing I had done-and it was no "sissy painting". The colors are very powerful. I had spent a lot of time doing pastel flowers in the Victorian mode, and house portraits. This is a large canvas- 36" long. It was finished by April 1986 and Marshall and I went back to his hometown of Greenport, L.I. His family had been stonecarvers, and it was that which got me interested in cemeteries and granite carving. Marshall died shortly after I returned back home and I was always happy we finished that painting. It was many years before I picked up my brushes again- mostly painting portraits of people's pets! I would like to try more arctic seascapes again.

FairhavenGuy · Post by **FairhavenGuy** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 11:34 pm

Trivia note on William Bradford, whose waterfront studio was a couple of blocks south of my office.

A block north of my office is one of the houses lived in by Bradford's father, Melvin O. Bradford, who with business partner Philemon Fuller was owner/agent of the whaleship Acushnet. On January 3, 1841, the Acushnet sailed on its maiden voyage from a wharf three blocks west of my office with 21-year-old Herman Melville aboard.

As I say on my walking tours, Melville sailed from Fairhaven in a ship named Acushnet that was built in Mattapoisett then he wrote about New Bedford, which claims all the Melville fame and glory. . .

mbhenty · Post by **mbhenty** » Thu Apr 02, 2009 11:10 pm

To paint like William Bradford is quite the accomplishment which few are endowed with.

One who comes close, and in my opinion may even rival Bradford, is S. Francis Smitheman. Smitheman is a contemporary artist out of England who also does Arctic Scenes along with 19th century battle panoramas and various naval ship scenes and such.

Smitheman's colors are much more colorful and his scenes more dramatic and busy then Bradford.

Very accomplished artist.

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Tue Apr 07, 2009 8:54 pm

Wow, Shelley you are truly a woman of many talents! The painting is absolutely beautiful. I've never been very good with landscapes or seascapes myself, I mostly paint portraits or interior scenes. I've said it before, we have some really talented people on this Forum.

mbhenty · Post by **mbhenty** » Wed Apr 08, 2009 1:21 pm

Wow is right Susan. If you compare the two paintings, Shelley's and Bradford's, one-to-one you can not tell them apart. They are that close, from color, tone, brush stroke and meter. We can now safely call Shelley Mrs. Bradford. Wow is right.

I love sailing so, sailing scenes are some of my favorite in the world of paintings. Below are a couple of fine examples of one of my favorite contemporary artists. By contemporary I mean now; the artist is a little older than I am.

J. Steven Dews, British born, paints nautical scenes. Many of his paintings are of modern yacht racing, America's Cup Boats etc. But, he has done everything from 19 century nautical battle scenes to images of modern aircraft carriers.

mbhenty · Post by **mbhenty** » Wed Apr 08, 2009 2:44 pm

John Steven Dews

His most famous piece:

Shelley · Post by **Shelley** » Fri Apr 17, 2009 11:56 am

While working on a powerpoint for the upcoming Titanic convention, I found this one of me with Marshall Drew at a lecture we did for the Westerly Power Squadron. I had just finished the painting a few weeks before. The angle makes the canvas look small- it is actually nearly 36 inches long.