Everyday Opulence is Karin Andrews Art ©

Existing Chesapeake Bay Lighthouses

This print is the first in a series of three prints of Existing Lighthouses from the Maryland and Virginia area of the Chesapeake Bay. 

The lighthouses featured on this 17" x 22" lithograph print include: Old and New Cape Henry (VA), Cape Charles (VA), Baltimore Light (MD), Hooper Island (MD), Hooper Strait (MD) Seven Foot Knoll Light (MD), Concord Point (MD) Thomas Point Shoal (MD), Cove Point (MD), Wolf Trap Lighthouse (VA), New Point Comfort (VA), Old Point Comfort (VA) and Pine Point Lighthouse (MD).  Additionally locations of most of the existing lighthouses on the Chesapeake Bay are designated along with the major tributaries of the Bay shown as well.  From an original watercolor.

Matching Notecards with envelopes are also available.

This print is the Second, in a series of three prints of Existing Lighthouses from the Maryland and Virginia area of the Chesapeake Bay. 

The lighthouses featured on this 17" x 22" lithograph print include: Newport News Middle Ground Light, Jones Point Light, Smith Point Light, Sharps Island, Fort Washington, Solomons Lump, Point Lookout, Craighill Channel Upper Range Front Light, Turkey Point, Fishing Battery or Donohoo's Battery Light, Point No Point, Sandy Point Shoal Light and Assateague, VA Light.

The Assateague Light was shown, since it was on the other side of the Eastern Shore and is such a well known Lighthouse.  I just didn't want to leave it off.  The title was painted as a cartouche, remeniscent of the titles found on the ancient mariners maps from the 1600's and beyond.  Each Clam, Oyster and Crab was hand painted in intricate detail, as well as carefully placed for the most pleasing overall effect.

Additionally locations of most of the existing lighthouses on the Chesapeake Bay are designated along with the major tributaries of the Bay shown as well.  From an original watercolor.

Each Print retails for $45.00 each.  Notecards are not yet available.  BUY ONE GET ONE 1/2 OFF.

Lighthouses of the Outer Banks

This print is a 17" x 22" lithograph from an original watercolor.  I was inspired to create this print after a family vacation to the Outer Banks.  The amazing altruistic "mission" of the original light keepers is a story that should be told for generations.  The light keepers and their families considered it of utmost importance to man the lights, thus sparing the lives of seagoing passengers and merchants.  The grandeur of these lighthouses is a testimony to the engineering  and labor feat required to build them and last to the present day.  Although many of the screw pile type of lighthouses, once so common along the outer banks no longer exhist, we have these wonderful giants to remind us of the tragedies that caused them to come into being.  Some still stand as beacons, lighting the way along the treacherous North Carolina coast today, others as Historic Beacons and Icons of our Maritime History.  Lighthouses include:  Cape Hatteras, Bald Head Light (Cape Fear), Cape Lookout, Bodie Island, Ocracoke Light, Currituck Beach Light, Oak Island and Roanoke River Light.  The first flight of  Wilbur and Orville Wright is also commemorated. 

Print measures 17" x 22" and retails for $36.00. 

Bowler's Rock Lighthouse. Bowler's Wharf, Virginia. Print size: 9" x 12"

Bowler's Rock Lighthouse was the only lighthouse built on the Rappahannock River.  The river is navigable all the way up to Fredericksburg, from the mouth of the Bay, at Stingray and Windmill Points.  From 1835 to June 10, 1868, a lightship was stationed at "Bowler's Rock", until the new screw pile lighthouse was commissioned.  Bowler's light stood in six feet of water, about 30 miles up from the mouth of the river.  This lighthouse was especially susceptible to ice flow damage over the years.  Even though rip-rap stone was placed in the axis of the surrounding current, the lighthouse were severely damaged by ice in 1918.  The remains of the lighthouse was dismantled around 1920 and a new tower sunk into place nearby. 

This print retails for $26.00 and measures 9" x 12".  Notecards come pre-packaged in lots of 6 with matching envelopes, for $8.99.

Great Wicomico River Lighthouse. Fleeton, Virginia (near Reedville). Print size: 9" x 12"

The Great Wicomico River is in Virginia on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay, near the fishing port of Reedville.  Reedville is famous as one of the great Menhaden fishing ports on the east coast.  This lighthouse was built in 1889 at the entrance to the Great Wicomico River and was first lighted on November 10 of that same year.  Originally it had a fixed white light, from a fourth order fresnel lens.  It also had 2 red sectors, which warned passers by of  the shoals off of Dameron Marsh and Bull Neck.  When it was needed, every fifteen seconds a fog bell was sounded twice.  In 1967, like so many of the other screw pile lighthouses, it was tragically dismantled and a new beacon put in its place, on the old supporting  foundation that remained.  

Prints retail for $26.00 and measure 9" x 12".  Notecards are available in lots of six, pre-packaged with matching envelopes for $8.99.

Stingray Point Lighthouse

Stingray Point Lighthouse was first lighted in 1858, on the southern side of where the Rappahannock River enters the Chesapeake Bay.  It was a hexagonal wooden cottage, with board and batten siding, originally.  

It was subsequently fully automated on November 10, 1950.  During the summer of 1967 it was torn down by the U.S. Coast Guard, like so many other screw pile lighthouses.  The lighthouse shown in this print, was the early Stingray Point Lighthouse.  There were later ones that were board and batten, as well as clapboard sided.  Ice was a  problem during the winters and caused the damage and destruction of so many lighthouses.

There is debate on the actual appearance of the Stingray Point Lighthouse.  Some lighthouse historians are clear that the Stingray Point and Windmill Point lighthouses were identical with the exception of the location of the "privy".  Some state that the siding was board and batten as was Windmill Point, still others say that it was horizontal or clapboard sided.  Information obtained from Coast Guard, while doing research  in 2001, clearly shows the Stingray Point lighthouse as having board and batten  siding.  Both Board and Batten siding, as well as clapboard siding, which came later, are correct.

So many of the screwpile lighthouses were destroyed in the 1960's, as a so called, "improvement".  We are grateful for any and all efforts to save the remaining lighthouses on the bay and it's tributaries.  If  "historic preservation" had been a mindset then, as it is now, think of the amazing lighthouse icons that would still remain to this day.

Prints measure 9" x 12" and retail for $26.00.  Notecards pre-packaged in lots of six, with matching envelopes retail for $8.99.