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Made on Maryland's Eastern Shore   |   © Erick Sahler Serigraphs Co.

Howard Lapp, the retired commercial airline pilot who has been creating bold graphic paintings and prints of Oxford, Maryland, for more than 20 years. I just love his style — “drawn tight and painted loose,” according to the artist. You can see his work at the Oxford Market, where a huge mural of oyster tongers adorns an outside wall and a smaller piece is featured below the lunch counter inside.

You. Twelve years into Erick Sahler Serigraphs Co., and I still can’t wait to get to work each morning. I owe every success to you, the people who support my dreams. Thank you so much.

Peace+love,

FIRST STATE ICONS FEATURED IN TRIO OF NEW PRINTS

Cape Henlopen, Delaware Bay and a landmark Sussex County dairy farm are celebrated in three new “My Hometown Series” prints by Erick Sahler.

The works depict the Great Dune at Cape Henlopen State Park, surf fishing on Delaware Bay and the Hopkins Farm Creamery near Lewes. All three illustrations were created in early 2023 and are available at The Brush Factory in Lewes and on our website.

“Great Dune” features perhaps the most incredible land form on Delmarva. Rising 80 feet above the Atlantic, the Great Dune was home to the Henlopen Lighthouse, which slid into the sea in 1926, and Fort Miles, constructed during World War II to defend Philadelphia. In a region of flat land and water, the Great Dune is a marvel to behold and I’m always struck by its immensity when visiting Cape Henlopen.

“Hopkins Brothers” celebrates the picturesque dairy that operated on Route 9 outside Lewes for generations. Until recently there were hundreds of black-and-white dairy cows on site, including the one in the print that I photographed among the buttercups in 2014. Homemade ice cream is still available in the Hopkins Farm Creamery beneath the iconic silo. I’ll miss the cows but I look forward to the redevelopment of the farm as a nature preserve.

“Gone Fission” salutes the odd juxtaposition of nature and nuclear on the shores of Delaware Bay. The Salem Power Plant looms in the distance, its cooling tower and plume of white steam visible for miles. The locals — humans and wildlife — seem to have adapted, fishing and recreating along the mostly unspoiled shoreline. To me it seems eerie. This image is a composite of three of my photos and the design parodies the iconic “Endless Summer” surf movie poster.

All three images are offered as Legacy Reproduction prints in both 8x10 and 16x20 sizes. Prices range from $35 to $185.

Andrew Wyeth’s model, muse and friend Helga Testorf and me at the opening reception for “Andrew Wyeth: Home Places” at the Brandywine Museum of Art in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania.

GRACIAS, MERCI, DANKE, GRAZI AND THANKS TO …

Brandywine Museum of Art. The Chadds Ford art museum recently committed to stewarding a collection of more than 7,000 never-before-seen works donated by the estate of Andrew and Betsy Wyeth. The first exhibit, “Andrew Wyeth: Home Places,” presents 50 drawings and paintings of the Chadds Ford area. It is on display at the Brandywine through July 13.

Salisbury University printmaking students and professor David Bunting for being fully present and engaged for a discussion on creating and selling silkscreen art in the mid-Atlantic region. It was my first time back in Fulton Hall since the pandemic and I instantly felt the energy and creativity that resonates throughout the building. I hope you all were as inspired as I was.

Tidewater Times. Many thanks to publishers John and Anne Farwell for using my Oxford “R2” illustration on the May cover of Tidewater Times. It’s my sixth time being featured and it still excites me as much as the first time did. You can read the Tidewater Times online here.

‘LANDMARK’ BUOY CELEBRATED IN OXFORD PRINT

Red, right, return.

For generations, the Tred Avon’s Red 2 buoy has welcomed sailors to Oxford, Maryland. Now it’s the subject of “R2,” a new print in the “My Hometown Series” collection.

Bobbing 200 yards off the Tred Avon Yacht Club, nautical charts call it Red Buoy No. 2.

To Oxford boaters, it is Red 2 — or R2 for short — and it marks the entry to the oldest port on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Landlubbers can view R2 from the public beach at the end of Lovers Lane, tucked between the yacht club and the Sandaway inn, which are both featured in the print.

Red 2 is as much an Oxford institution as the mustard yellow exterior of the Robert Morris Inn, or the town’s onion dome picket fences, and I believed it deserved a tribute.

It is offered as Legacy Reproduction prints in both 8x10 and 16x20 sizes. Prices range from $35 to $165.

COLLAGE PRINT MARKS 50 YEARS OF ISLAND HISTORY

Chincoteague ponies. Chincoteague oysters. Chincoteague scows. Add a pair of world famous decoy carvers and the cult of Misty. The impact of the island town is unparalleled on the Delmarva Peninsula.

My new print “Shamelessly Chincoteague” celebrates the unique island culture, landmarks, events and businesses that have touched my life over the past five decades. The print features more than 80 icons in bold primary colors.

This is my fourth “community collage” design, following “Simply Salisbury,” “Only Ocean City” and “Obviously Oxford.” Much research goes into building such a complicated design, and I am grateful for the support of Cindy Faith at the Museum of Chincoteague and Jon and Jane Richstein at Sundial Books in sharing ideas and images.

“Shamelessly Chincoteague” is offered as Legacy Reproduction prints in both 8x10 and 16x20 sizes. Prices range from $35 to $165.

INAUGURAL ‘MY HOMETOWN’ PRINT REVISITED

In 2011, I launched Erick Sahler Serigraphs Co. with “Downtown Salisbury,” a print that celebrated my hometown. It was an intentional move. Despite Salisbury being at a low point, with crime and a warring city government dominating the news, I still believed in its potential.

Now, 12 years later, I celebrate my hometown again with “Salisbury Rising.”

Our downtown is almost unrecognizable from a decade ago, with new construction, new businesses and a renewed sense of civic pride.

“Salisbury Rising” revisits the courthouse steeple, this time in a view from Lemmon Hill, boxed in by The Ross (or “The Hoss,” as I call it), a brand new 14-story condominium towering over Main Street. Salisbury is rising, but with additional projects in the works I still believe the best is yet to come.

The print is offered as Legacy Reproduction prints in both 8x10 and 16x20 sizes. Prices range from $35 to $165.

CAMBRIDGE PRINT SALUTES BOATBUILDER’S LEGACY

On the Eastern Shore, the Richardson name is synonymous with the art of wooden boatbuilding. Jim Richardson, for whom the Richardson Maritime Museum in Cambridge is named, elevated the craft, building and restoring countless Chesapeake Bay vessels during his 50-year career.

I first encountered “Mr. Jim” through an incredible painting by Cambridge artist George Wright when I was in middle school. Wright depicted Richardson in his boatbuilding shop on Lecompte Creek, admiring a young boy’s toy sailboat beneath a giant bugeye stern. It was painted in the style of Norman Rockwell, every detail masterfully rendered to promote a story of tradition and mutual respect. Many years later, I still think of the painting every time I pass by the lane to Richardson’s shop.

Mr. Jim passed in 1991, but his boatbuilding legacy lives on at the museum, where volunteers restore wooden boats and teach children basic boatbuilding skills and time-honored traditions.

My illustration shows the simple yet graceful bow of the skipjack Martha Lewis as it underwent restoration on the grounds of the museum from 2019 to 2023. The scene is familiar to anyone who has traveled into Cambridge in recent years, yet seemingly of another era.

“Richardson’s” is offered as Legacy Production prints in both 8x10 and 16x20 sizes. Prices range from $35 to $165.

Jane Brighton of Lloyds, Maryland, who we happened upon along a country lane while researching the late Chesapeake Bay boatbuilder Jim Richardson. Turns out, she is his daughter and was more than willing to share the family’s history including an impromptu tour of the site where “Mr. Jim” built and restored boats for half a century.

Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art and Pemberton Pharmacy of Salisbury, both of which closed recently, were huge supporters of me and my work. I am grateful for the partnerships and friendships formed over the past decade.

Wildflowers bloom outside the workshop of the late Jim Richardson, who built and restored boats on this site for 50 years.

Howard Lapp’s mural of oyster tongers adorns the side of the Oxford Market.

Keith Whitelock has been my mentor and friend since I was in grade school. His Eastern Shore paintings are on exhibit in Snow Hill, Maryland, through the end of June.

C. Keith Whitelock, whose work is on exhibit at Bishop’s Stock in Snow Hill, Maryland, through the end of June. For 40 years, Keith has been a mentor and a friend. He taught me everything I know about drawing and painting, and introduced me to screen printing. I would not be where I am today without him.

SAHLER PAYS TRIBUTE TO ISLAND CREAMERY FAVORITE

The Sahlers have sampled ice cream around the world, from the historic Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen to the celebrated Bi-Rite Creamery in San Francisco. But our favorite comes from right here on Delmarva.

The Island Creamery was started in Chincoteague, Virginia, in 1975 and regularly appears on lists of the best ice cream in the United States. At the height of the summer tourist season, Island Creamery is one of those places where folks will line up for blocks for a taste of the shop’s delectable homemade confections. It’s that good.

My print “Marsh Mud” features one of the Island Creamery’s not-to-be-missed signature flavors. Legend has it an accidental double dose of chocolate resulted in the thickest, richest, fudgiest ice cream ever created. Rather than toss it, it was offered to customers and it became an instant sensation. We’ve never tasted anything like it.

The name “Marsh Mud” comes from the dark fecund goo — which the ice cream resembles — that separates the grasses and the water in the Eastern Shore’s tidal wetlands.

My illustration brings them together (I hope) for the first time. It’s a cheeky salute to local culture inspired by the recent Wayne Thiebaud exhibit at the Brandywine River Museum of Art in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania.

It is offered as Legacy Reproduction prints in both 8x10 and 16x20 sizes. Prices range from $35 to $165.