I just found the Jack Coggins site you created. Thank you for putting it together as I enjoy seeing his work and am still inspired by it. It is a nice tribute and Jack would be pleased.

In the last ten to twelve years of Jack's life I was a student of his at the Wyomissing Institute of the Arts in West Reading, Pennsylvania. For about four years I took classes with him. And, when it became difficult for him to travel and could no longer teach at the institute, our class met at his house in the country for semi-regular critiques of our work. The main reason I took his classes was to glean his expertise in marine art. I am a member of the American Society of Marine Artists as Jack was. He helped me immensely with my marine art and I grew to have the deepest respect for his work and for him as a person. He once gave me a wood and paper boat model that he made for one of his books because I admired it so. It turned up in The Marine Painter's Guide book. I bought the whaling oil he painted for the cover of that book. You show it on your web site. I have about seven of his books that I have found at flea markets.

Our class attended his birthday parties and my wife and I offered home-cooked meals to Alma and him toward the end. Both Jack and Alma were grand people who shared a wonderful life together.

When Jack and Alma passed on I helped with final exhibitions and general cleaning up at the house. Those in charge knew of my relationship with Jack and my appreciation of his work and all things marine. I bought several things from the estate. One item was a folder of simple pencil sketches. I see that some of those sketches were later made into some of the artworks you show on your site. Many have grid lines drawn over them for enlarging purposes, but some I appreciate just as remembrance art of Jack's. I can see him in his studio drawing up ideas. I also own six of his original oils and one of Alma's pastels.

The last painting I bought of Jack's was from his last show at the Institute. It was stored away in a closet because it had damaged spots. We bought it anyway and I retouched the damage. I felt close to Jack while making the repairs and following his color palette and brush strokes. We reframed it in a beautiful antique frame and it is now a prized part of our collection. We could not be at the opening when most of the paintings sold, so we were happy to obtain the one we got.

By the way, I am a retired university professor who taught illustration, and graphic and advertising design for 28 years. Before that I was an art director in two ad agencies in Philadelphia and a freelance designer.