Maritime Museum Boat School Offers Lighthouse Painting Series

​Maritime Museum Boat School Offers Lighthouse Painting Series

​Weekend introductory classes guide students through local lighthouse scenes

KINGSTON, N.Y. – Hudson River Maritime Museum will offer a series of painting classes at the museum’s Wooden Boat School beginning in June. Students can choose from a variety of Sunday classes featuring seven local lighthouses and paint their images under the guidance of a local painter as they spend a day on the historic Kingston waterfront.

Students will leave with a finished 11x14 acrylic on canvas painting of one of the remaining lighthouses that dot the Hudson River: Hudson-Athens Lighthouse, Saugerties Lighthouse, Rondout Lighthouse, Esopus Meadows Lighthouse, Stony Point Lighthouse, Sleepy Hollow Lighthouse, and the Little Red Lighthouse. Separate registration is required for each class in the series. Dedicated painters who commit to six of the classes can attend their seventh class at no charge. A list of the classes can be found at www.hrmm.org/adult-classes. No experience is necessary and the classes are open to anyone who wants to paint or is inspired by lighthouses.

• Stony Point Lighthouse – June 5, 2022
• Hudson-Athens Lighthouse – June 12, 2022
• Little Red Lighthouse – June 19, 2022
• Esopus Meadows Lighthouse – June 26, 2022
• Rondout Lighthouse – July 10, 2022
• Sleepy Hollow Lighthouse – July 17, 2022
• Saugerties Lighthouse – July 24, 2022

Painter and instructor Catherine Buchanan will provide guidance as students create their works. After studying art at San Francisco State University Catherine Buchanan worked photographing museum collections in California. She paints because she loves the challenge of creating lifelike images. Her series of large animal portraits showed in venues around San Francisco for many years and her dog paintings gained a wider audience after Pomegranate Press published a calendar. In 1999 she sailed to the South Pacific on a 40’ boat with a friend from Mexico to New Zealand, visiting more than forty islands on the way. In 2001 she moved ashore in American Samoa to open a thrift store and continue painting in the islands. Catherine is currently building her own house and painting in Kingston. www.catherinebuchanan.com

Of the dozens of lighthouses and lights that once dotted the Hudson River, only seven remain. This iconic American river, at the heart of the rise of New York City and westward expansion into the interior of the continent, was also a transportation super highway long before automobiles were invented. Throughout it all, the lighthouses kept watch, guarding the safety of the Hudson’s waterborne traffic.

This painting series coincides with the development of the film “Seven Sentinels: Lighthouses of the Hudson River,” a feature-length documentary HRMM is producing together with Moonbow Imaging. Learn more at www.hudsonriverlighthouses.org.

For details about classes and to register, visit the Wooden Boat School online at www.hrmm.org/boat-school or call 845-338-0071. People who have questions can contact Becky Sellinger, Wooden Boat School Manager, at bsellinger@hrmm.org.  

About the HRMM Wooden Boat School
The Wooden Boat School was founded by the Hudson River Maritime Museum in 2015 to preserve the maritime craft traditions of the Hudson Valley and to teach a hands-on interpretation of the living history of the Hudson River. The school offers diverse curriculum and opportunities which inspire skills in woodworking, boat building, and maritime craft. Also available are restoration services for wooden boats. Learn more at www.hrmm.org/boat-school.