J.A. KENDALL: An Extraordinary Talent in Sunapee NH
By John J. Botta, Jr.
Stand on the deck of the tall ship Christian Radich as she sails full-rigged through a Norwegian fjord, or leave from a Russian port and round Cape Horn toward South America on the German-built Kruzenshtern, as a warm breeze sprays sea salt across the bow while your lungs fill with the air of adventure. Imagine such a breathtaking thrill – or engage the experience at the studio of NewHampshire born nautical artistJ.A. Kendall.
John Allan Kendall of Georges Mills is an artist extraordinaire. His parents, both musically inclined, encouraged him to develop his artistic talents as a youngster. As he matured, he was counseled by his mentor, artist Newell Carney, who supplied Kendall with hints on techniques of drawing he would later perfect. As a result, following his graduation from the University of New Hampshire in 1966, it seemed natural for Kendall to teach art close to home. He did just that for three years in both Sunapee and New London, until he sought to expand his abilities by seeking a Masters Degree in Creative Arts.
Since a post-graduate education in the Northeast proved prohibitively expensive, Kendall headed west to California in search of his dream. The artist initially found himself working in a department store, taking nighttime photography courses at the University of California at Berkeley. Following his acceptance to San Francisco State College, it was in the Bay area his talents blossomed.
The construction of the Golden Gate Bridge had ended the usefulness of many ferries and riverboats that were subsequently abandoned in mud flats and beached at Sausalito. According to Kendall, the scene “looked like an abandoned movie set.” Ultimately, the abandoned boats were salvaged and the area quickly developed into a houseboat community. In need of accommodations, Kendall searched the area until meeting author Shel Silverstein, who introduced him to the artistic community. Kendall found and salvaged a boat that was nothing more than “an A-frame building on a barge.” He fixed up the floating home, where he resided from 1971 to 1976.
It was in this environment he began to explore new artistic techniques. He was painting watercolors at the time. Kendall had been working on a Masters project and drew and photographed various scenes in the San Francisco Bay area. Using what he refers to as “KODALITH” film, he created a mixed media presentation for his professors aboard Shel Silverstein’s boat. His unique method involved taking ink drawings and combining them with still photographs and filmmaking processes from a vantage point inside the boat looking outward. The successful technique caught the eye of award winning filmmaker, Larry White, who utilized Kendall’s work in a full-length production, which is now part of the permanent collection at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.
In the early 1970s, selling art in the street was illegal in San Francisco. Artists seeking to make their living selling their work to the general public were compelled to circulate a petition to permit their street sales. The effort was successful and legislation passed permitting the issuance of licenses. Kendall was quick to respond. He was issued license #30, thus becoming one of San Francisco’s original “street artists.” He continued to explore new methods while drawing local street scenes. He soon developed what he calls “current day old scenes.” His technique involved taking modern views of city life and eliminating the “clutter,” like cars and buses. Instead, he focused on streetcars, drawing scenes as if they were occurring many years earlier.
Ultimately, Kendall was squeezed from the street scene. The numerous licenses issued to street artists made professional drawing difficult and economically infeasible. Never thwarted by change, Kendall joined a group known as “California Artists,” and booked appearances at various places throughout California, appearing at galleries, shopping plazas, and civic centers selling his art. As his popularity grew, many people suggested that with his eye for detail he should attempt to draw the famous French Quarter in New Orleans. Kendall’s Hew Hampshire roots continued to show, as there would be no road untaken for this artist. He was New Orleans bound.
At this new location, Kendall began to sell his work in galleries rather than on the street. Each of Kendall’s drawings contained amazing detail, including the infusion of characters he met along the way, like “the chicken man” and his dog “rat,” his landlord, family members, and friends. In one drawing, approximately forty characters appear in a street scene, and Kendall can still recall the names of each one and deliver an accompanying story. Obviously not intimidated by his surroundings, Kendall continued the expansion of his talents, and was proud to have been the featured artist in the first edition of the renowned publication, The French Quarter Catalog.
Kendall sought other avenues to sell his creations and explore new methodologies. Someone suggested Ibiza, Spain as a good arena for artists, so once again Kendall took up the challenge to travel outside the USA to advance his professional career. He approached a friend from his houseboat community in Sausalito, who was enticed by the move to Ibiza, but refused to fly there. In search of an alternative method of transportation, his friend discovered that a Russian ship, the Alexander Pushkin, sailed from Montreal, and students were permitted to book passage quite inexpensively. Although no longer a student, Kendall managed to obtain student status, and sailed the eight-day voyage to Europe. He had hoped to sell enough art in Ibiza to pay his expenses for the trip. However, on board the ship, English tourists and Russian crew members began buying his art as he drew at the stern of the ship each day. By the time he reached Spain, he had recouped all his expenses plus $150. His friend remained in Ibiza three or four months, but the committed Kendall stayed five years. Spain had a Hippie Market in the town of Escana, where artisans sold anything from clothing to jewelry. Kendall obtained a license and began selling his art at that location. He recalls that Wednesday was tourist day, when the tour buses would unload at the market and he could sell his work regularly.
Germany was the next stop on Kendall’s journey toward artistic prominence. He had been there before. In 1975, he had met a German couple in California who earned their living selling macramé. He invited them to live on his houseboat. In return, they invited him to visit them in Germany. Kendall desired to draw the enormous Cathedral at Cologne. He took up the challenge. The project took three months and the minute details of the scene and Kendall’s perspective are nothing short of magnificent.
From Germany, Kendall embarked for Antibes on the French Riviera, where he began doing commission work. Collectors gave him photographs of their boats and hired him to draw the boats in different scenes than those presented in the photographs. He often would sit in a dinghy and snap dozens of pictures, as they would sail around him.
Kendall’s maritime drawings catapulted this prolific artist to the top of his game. In 1980, his sister asked him to travel with her to Boston to view the Tall Ships entering the harbor. Kendall took a camera with him, and as he saw the first ship sail by, he immediately knew his future direction. He drew the ships, and using his technique of eliminating the clutter of the surroundings, sketched them in older settings. He was so enamored with the tall vessels that he managed to speak to a crewman aboard one of the ships and learned they were headed to Amsterdam for the Sail Amsterdam activities. Kendall pledged to follow them there. He continued tracking the voyages of these ships around the world, taking thousands of photographs, enlarging the pictures, and drawing the ships using a sepia pen and ink wash technique he developed, by which he “married drawing and painting.” The artist says he often sets the ships in different scenes “composing my own scene from still photographs, so I can get all the detail I want.”
Kendall’s art is superb. While he appears to be painting scenes, he is actually drawing. He uses a crow quill pen, Pelikan ink in sepia brown, and brushes, which give his sketches the older appearance he seeks. “With this technique, I can paint with detail,” he says. As a bonus for the owner of a Kendall print, the artist appears as a character in each of his drawings. “It started as a joke back in San Francisco, when I drew myself into a scene,” Kendall said, and he went with the theme throughout his career.
As for the artist himself, his favorite scene continues to be the sea and the mood in the Sir Winston Churchill drawing, which has been featured at the Mariner’s Museum in Newport News, Virginia. “It’s my favorite sea,” he exclaims. Of his Tall Ships series, the Endeavor remains his favorite. “I got my whole family on board,” he states proudly. His dream is to sail and draw aboard one of these ships during a racing event, “shooting through the rigging” to give the viewer the feeling of being on board. He has compiled twenty-five hundred photographs of the dozens of Tall Ships, most of which are now training vessels for various navies throughout the world. He would love to draw them all – the ships of what he calls the “golden age of sail.”
Although his work is currently featured in galleries from Mystic Seaport to Bar Harbor, J. A. Kendall has renovated his own studio and gallery in Georges Mills, NH. It is a working studio/gallery, where the public is able to visit and watch him at his craft.
A complete collection of signed Tall Ships prints is available at:
Kendall Studio & Gallery
1036 Main Street, PO Box 454
Georges Mills, NH 03751
(603) 763-3295
I wholesale to Museums, Galleries & frame shops. The minimum order for wholesale is $100. Scenes wholesale are 50% of the retail price. Shipping fees remain the same.
Beautiful Signed, Hand Painted Prints & Gilcee Prints of Lasting Beauty by JA Kendall, including Tall Ships, San Francisco & New Orleans