If you have a favorite cruising ground along the U.S. East Coast, you’ll surely find a kindred spirit in Joseph S. Tarella. Tarella has turned a pastime into a profession that’s paying off well among yachting enthusiasts, waterfront homeowners, and more. With a passion for traveling and maps, Tarella searched for a suitable depiction of the famed LBI (Long Beach Island) in New Jersey after building a home there. Failing to find what he wanted, he painted his own, drawing (literally and figuratively) upon his background in architecture. Soon friends and family wanted their own maps. Thus Coastal Art Maps was born.
Coastal Art Maps offers two dozen maps so far, spanning regions from Florida to New England. Tarella recently added four maps to his the Mid-Atlantic collection, depicting different areas of Virginia’s Eastern Shore. Shown above is the region from Fishermans Island to Virginia Beach, in the southernmost Chesapeake Bay. You’ll find well-known towns like Hampton Roads, Portsmouth, Norfolk, and Newport News. More important, though, Tarella makes meticulous note of the idiosyncrasies of their individual shorelines, plus the roads and railways that wind through their interiors.
Whether it’s the New Jersey Shore, Long Island, the Cape, the Keys, or elsewhere along the U.S. East Coast, each map offered by Coastal Art Maps combines pen and ink with watercolor washes, on vellum for stronger appeal. You can purchase full-size giclee canvas maps or half-size watercolor paper maps.
Here’s Tarella himself describing how and why he creates these maps:
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