For a small town, Rochester has been home to many creative people (some recently mentioned in the Wanderer). Some artists that come to mind are Charles Matthews, best known for his Sunbeam bread billboard, but also the creator of the oil painting of Rochester Center hanging in the Select Board room at Town Hall. Then there is Otis Tripp. A print of his painting of the Hartley Sawmill hangs over my fireplace. I’m also fortunate to have several of Betty Beaulieu’s paintings on the walls of my home. She was one of the many accomplished painters in the COA Monday painting group.
Perhaps because Rochester and its surroundings have so many scenic spots, painters are drawn to town. One painter in particular, Bill Gilkerson said in a 1980’s interview that from Mendocino, California, he “came to Rochester because much of the work I was doing was for people on the East Coast.”
I found this interview (as so many others) in papers from the Historical Society. Gilkerson in 1980 was 42 yrs. old and by that time he had led a very busy and interesting life fueled by his love of both boats and the sea. Growing up in the Midwest, he drew pictures of boats and at the age of 14 ran away to sea with a job on a Norwegian freighter which lasted 2 years.
Then painting became his new job and key to his future plans. He used this skill to acquire and repair an old 50 ft. cutter (preferring sail to freighter) which he sailed around the Baltic, North Sea and English Channel. Returning to America with the hopes of upgrading to a better boat, he began a career of writing and illustrating books which led him to a job as a reporter and then Saturday entertainment editor for the San Francisco Chronicle.
Finally, he settled on painting as his life’s work. Many of his paintings are of ships, both historic and modern. His work hangs in the US Naval Academy Museum, the National Maritime Museum in San Francisco, the Kendall Whaling Museum once in Sharon, Ma (which means they must now be in the New Bedford Whaling Museum) and the International Marine Archives on Nantucket as well as many other places.
At the time of the interview (now 46 yrs. ago), he was working on a painting of John Paul Jones’ ship, the “Bonhomme Richard”. Jones is famous for his success in Revolutionary War naval battles and his often-repeated quote, “I have not yet begun to fight”. Gilkerson also painted another of Jones’ ships, the sloop “Providence” shown in the picture.
Legend has it that John Paul Jones was short on ammunition, so before setting out in the “Providence” to battle at sea, he collected as much metal as possible, including his neighbors’ pots and pans. Sailing into Buzzards Bay, he attacked a British brig and overwhelmed it with deadly bursts of scrap battle shot from his cannons. He then brought the brig into New Bedford Harbor.
Gilkerson’s painting (not this picture) of the “Providence” was used on a poster for an exhibit at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
Living in Rochester with a painting studio on the second floor of his barn, he has come a long way from that boy drawing boats in the land locked Midwest.
By Connie Eshbach
