Water pours over the sides and onto the deck of a large sailing ship in Jack L. Gray’s “In the Roaring Forties on the Deck of a Four-Masted Bark.” Rough ocean waters with whitecaps backdrop the scene. As wind and water pour over the rails, the crew hold on for dear life.
Born in 1927 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Jack L. Gray was an only child who held a fascination with ships and loved to draw boats. His skills took him to the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. In between, Gray spent several years aboard dory-fishing schooners in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, where he produced a large portfolio of notes, sketches and photographs.
Gray’s first solo exhibition was in Chester, Nova Scotia, in 1948, where he picked up multiple commissions. In the mid-1950s, he moved to New York City where he first used the cantankerous flat-bottomed skiff he called the S.O.B.
As marine art dealer Russell Jinishian puts it, Gray “lived a true artist life.” His painting “Dressing Down, the Gully” was presented to President John F. Kennedy in 1962 and increased interest in his work. Gray last moved to West Palm Beach, Florida, where he lived aboard a boat. He stayed in the Sunshine State for the remainder of his life, frequently sailing to the Bahamas.
Most of Gray’s fame came from his oil-on-canvas paintings which have extensive inscriptions on the back about their location and subject matter, although they are rarely dated.
Gray passed away in September 1981 and his ashes were scattered at sea. In the early 2000s, there was a resurgence of interest in his style of painting among museums, which caused his work to increase in value.
Jinishian says Gray’s skill at painting the ocean was transformative. “The power of a painting like “In the Roaring Forties” is about man versus nature and what you had to do,” he says. “You’re left to your own wits and the smarts of the captain.”
This article was originally published in the May 2023 issue.
