| | | | |
Though numerous books have featured the work of Chesapeake artists and photographers, this special volume, dedicated solely to the work of John Morton Barber, uniquely captures the Bay in all its complexity.
In this book, you will see his art as it has never been available before. While seventy-nine of Barber's works have been published as limited edition prints, hundreds of others are in private collections. Many are published here for the first time. John Valliant's narrative puts the artist's work in a historical context, enriched by Barber's personal chronicle explaining each painting and how it was conceived. Black and white sketches, created especially for the book, provide an added glimpse into the creative process behind the paintings. Again and again, we are reminded that to properly paint the Bay, you must experience it-not only the sunny, lazy afternoons, but also the cold, dark mornings when there is a living that must be made, and going out on the water is the only way to do it.
Calling John Barber the "premier chronicler of Chesapeake Bay life," J. Russell Jinishian, a leading authority on contemporary marine art, praised the artist's technical skill and painstaking attention to detail. "Many artists paint skipjacks," he explained, "but John's emotive depth puts him on another level entirely." Should the skipjacks disappear, he noted, Barber's paintings will provide a valuable historical record of the watermen's era.
