Jim Griffiths

There is no question in our minds that Jim has earned his position as one of the world's premier marine watercolorists whose work will be featured among the important maritime museum collectors in the years ahead.

When we first saw the extraordinary watercolors of Jim Griffiths, we were instantly impressed, as have been the many collectors lucky enough to acquire his work over the last 30 years. Our admiration continues to grow for Griffiths' work as a watercolorist, so deft as a draftsman, meticulous as a researcher, and sophisticated as a colorist. Griffiths' career began during high school where he spent summers in classes at the Chicago Art Institute and the American Academy of Art. After graduating from Amherst College with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1969, he furthered his studies, graduating from the Los Angeles Art Center College of Design with a degree in illustration. He then went to work for an industrial arts studio where, after a short period of time his interest and desire to devote himself entirely to painting ships and the sea took over. Fortunately, he has been pursuing marine art exclusively since then.

A special area of interest for him are post-1940 steel naval vessels. It is perhaps in these that the full range of his tremendous talents can be appreciated for the absolute precision detail in combination with convincing color and light, which Griffiths handles on a par with the finest marine watercolorists of any era. To ensure the authenticity and accuracy of all of his work, he refers regularly to a large library of nautical books, photographs and ship plans that he has amassed over the years.

He is a member of the American Society of Marine Artists, and in 1989 was commissioned to paint the official portrait of the USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN (CVN-72). He has also done a series of nautical paintings for the Revel/Monogram Co. 

In 2000, he was commissioned by the United States Postal Service to paint four paintings which were issued as postage stamps commemorating the 100th anniversary of the U.S. Submarine Service collections of tomorrow. Jim won the prestigious Rudolph J. Schaefer Maritime Heritage Award at the 2003 Mystic International Marine Art Exhibition. The award recognizes the one work in the show that "best documents our maritime heritage, past or present, for generations of the future." In 2007, Jim won the Best of Show Award at the 14th Annual Maritime Exhibition at the Coos Art Museum in Coos Bay, Oregon. In 2014, Jim was honored with a one-man show at The United States Naval Academy Museum in Annapolis, Maryland. 

His paintings are represented in many corporate collections among them are:Kraftco Corporations Glenview, Illinois, Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp., Pittsburgh, PA; Schiele-Faierson Co., Chicago, Illinois, Global Cash Management, Lake Forest, Illinois Ebasco Services, Inc., Houston, Texas.