See the sea

I first came across Carl Evers (1907--2000) amazing visual style when the Philadelphia Electric Company ran a marketing campaign in 1960 and 61 with ads in consumer weeklies that used his paintings. (You can see these ad paintings here: https://westread.blogspot.com/2011/12/illustrations-from-past-decades-part-3.html .) Only a few could be called maritime as they featured industrial docks others were incredibly detailed pictures of city and suburban life. None of the paintings were signed so I was aware of Carl Evers art but not his name.

This landscape paperback was published in 1975 and I found a good copy recently for next to nothing. There are forty-four paintings with a mix of sailing boats (old and new) warships, cruise liners and tugboats. Of course what stands out is the totally convincing sea, whether it's a calm day or choppy waters Evers has a knack of making it look so real, perhaps it's the foam or the wave's whitecaps that capture the viewer's imagination. The last page has four black and white sketches which clearly show what a brilliant draughtsman Evers was.

What is missing from the book is any description of how Evers worked, what make of paints and brushes did he use, original roughs for these paintings, their size et cetera. However it's well worth searching out a copy if you want to see the master of maritime art.