I do commissions for specific ships, including modern Navy and merchant ships. I also do aircraft. They can be matched up to specific chart areas - I have about 2,000 old lithographed charts from around the world. Sizes range from a 20x24 up to the full chart - about 30x40. Custom framing and frames made from marine salvage are available. CONTACT ME BY EMAIL AT l_packar@bellsouth.net OR CALL 504-452-7606 TO DISCUSS CREATING A ONE OF A KIND NAUTICAL DRAWING.
Item details
Price
$0.00
Quantity available
10
Shipping
Self or in-person delivery
Option to pick up the product in person instead of shipping
Delivery and pickup restrictions may apply: To be developed
Refund & return policy
No refund or returns allowed on this purchase.
Exceptions may apply. Please message Lawrence for more information.
My interest in the sea and shipwrecks began in 1966. I was the radio operator on a US Air Force Air/Sea Rescue “Crash-boat”. Built in 1944, the high speed 63 foot wooden rescue boat gave me an uncommon opportunity to experience the sea and wonder about what lies below.
In 1968, I was on a Forward Air Control team attached to the Army in Vietnam. Maps became my sketch pad for drawing the things that caught my eye. But, it was the Vietnamese fishing boats sailing out to the South China Sea that caught my imagination.
In 1970, I joined other artists working on Jackson Square in the New Orleans French Quarter. I drew pen & ink sailing ships on nautical charts and sold them right off my work board. I learned the art of scrimshaw and worked with watercolors and oils. Only to discover that the challenge of pen & ink was my passion.
My drawings are actual ships and most were lost at sea. I find their stories in old newspapers, insurance records, Admiralty Court cases and government reports. I’ve sailed on working tall ships in the Atlantic and on the Great Lakes. As a licensed pilot I learned to feel the wind and understand weather in the three dimensional world of flying.
Each drawing begins with a rough pencil sketch. Then I use a single technical pen with a point diameter of five thousandths of an inch to create the entire drawing. Completely self-taught, I developed my own technique for building up the details, shapes, textures and shadows by layering thousands of tiny pen strokes. My one-of-a-kind drawings are done free-hand, based on my research and the image of the ship that I see in my mind.
I have been combining art and history with nautical charts for 53 years to tell the stories of ships lost at sea. My one-of-a-kind pen & ink drawings of sailing ships are done free-hand on the chart of the waters where they were last seen, based on the stories I find in old newspapers, insurance records, ship's papers, life-saving service records and admiralty court cases.