| Homer was born in Boston, Massachusetts and, | | | | without brushes, paper and his pans of |
| when he was 19, was apprenticed to a | | | | watercolors. He started depicting the coast of |
| commercial lithographer. Despite having almost no | | | | New England, the Adirondacks, the wild rivers of |
| formal training in art, Homer moved to New York | | | | Quebec, the Florida Keys and the whitewashed |
| in 1859 and opened his own studio as a painter | | | | walls of Bermuda. |
| and illustrator. He took art classes and was a | | | | In 1881 Homer returned to Europe and spent the |
| regular freelance illustrator for Harper's Weekly | | | | next two years in Cullercoats, a small fishing |
| and other important magazines of the day. They | | | | village on the stormy North Sea coast of England. |
| would be his major source of income for the | | | | His subject matter was the sea and the |
| next 17 years. | | | | courageous inhabitants of the small struggling |
| When the Civil War erupted in 1861, Harper's sent | | | | community. The watercolors he produced of the |
| him to the front lines to document the fighting. He | | | | village women going about their daily lives or |
| made faithful sketches of the battle scenes and | | | | waiting for their menfolk to return from a fishing |
| ordinary life in the camps. Although these did not | | | | expedition are some of the most powerful |
| get Homer much artistic recognition at the time | | | | images produced by the artist. |
| the drawings, with their strong draftsmanship and | | | | Back in the U.S. he went to live in Prout's Neck, |
| realism, are today considered to be among the | | | | Maine where he built a studio on the rocky sea |
| best of America?s graphic arts. | | | | shore that was to be his home until he died. |
| After the war, Homer produced a series of | | | | Winslow Homer lived there alone, isolated and free |
| paintings influenced by scenes he had witnessed, | | | | to devote himself to his art. It is at this time that |
| among them Sharpshooter on Picket Duty, and | | | | he began painting the seascapes for which he is |
| Prisoners from the Front, which was exhibited at | | | | best known such as Gulf Stream, Eight Bells, and |
| the Paris Exposition of 1866. In the same year he | | | | Mending the Nets. His paintings underwent a |
| traveled to Paris and stayed there for ten | | | | fundamental change. He was now concentrating |
| months. | | | | on the force, drama, and wild beauty of the |
| Ten years after the end of the Civil War, | | | | ocean. His style was powerful and self-confident. |
| Winslow Homer was in his mid-40s and an | | | | Homer never spoke about the reasons for this |
| acclaimed painter and illustrator. Snap the Whip, | | | | self-imposed seclusion; it?s thought that perhaps |
| painted in 1872, was exhibited at the 1876 | | | | an unhappy love affair might have been the |
| Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia and, in the | | | | cause. |
| same year, he decided to abandon illustration and | | | | Winslow Homer died on September 29, 1910 in his |
| devote himself to painting. But perhaps the most | | | | studio at Prout's Neck. He was 74 years old. His |
| significant development in Homer?s artistic career | | | | painting, Shoot the Rapids, remained unfinished. |
| came with his adoption of watercolors. He is | | | | You can find a wide collection of Winslow Homer |
| quoted as saying "You will see, in the future I will | | | | paint by number patterns at the Segmation web |
| live by my watercolors" and, indeed, the success | | | | site. These patterns may be viewed, painted, |
| he achieved with these fresh and spontaneous | | | | and printed using SegPlay™PC a fun, |
| works permitted him to stop working as an | | | | computerized paint-by-numbers program for |
| illustrator. | | | | Windows 2000, XP, and Vista. |
| At this time, Homer never went anywhere | | | | |