Remembering a beginning interest in the world of art from the first grade when he constantly drew ship and airplanes, George Rothery says it suddenly dawned on him in third grade how to add perspective. Enhancing this early interest in art was a love of the water, sailing and racing that began with his summers on Barnegat Bay in New Jersey. His parents belonged to the Lavallette Yacht Club where he participated in racing and ran around in a 17-foot Chris Craft Utility, leaving him with a love of the old classics that remains to this day.

Later as an adult, with a vacation home on Hilton Head Island, he spent considerable time on the South Carolina coast, where now most of his inspirations for paintings are pictured.

A graduate of the University of Tennessee in Business Administration, Rothery served two tours in the armed forces, first in the enlisted ranks and later as an officer during the Korean Conflict. His professional entrance into the world of art came as a gallery owner when he opened his first gallery in Knoxville in the late fifties, representing a number of well known artists and selling some of his own small oils.

Basically self-taught, in the late sixties Rothery studied privately with the late Walter Hollins Stevens (1927 - 1980), a professor in the University of Tennessee Art Department. He now concentrates on oil and acrylics and especially enjoys researching sea lore so he can combine his keen interest in history with his love of the sea.

Affiliations:

• The National Oil and Acrylic Painters Society
• Oil Painters of America
• Salmagundi Club, New York
• The American Society of Marine Artists
• US Coast Guard Art Program
• Tennessee Artists Association

• The Cape Museum of Fine Art, Dennis, Massachusetts
• The Riverfront Art Center, Wilmington, Delaware
• The Coos Museum of Fine Art, Coos Bay, Oregon
• The United States Coast Guard Collection, New York
• Columbia College, Osage Beach, Missouri
• The Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, Tennessee
• The Art League of Manatee County, Florida
• The East Tennessee Historical Society, Tennessee