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adventure, Art, art in a bottle, artist, beachcombing, Clint Buffington, cruise, Inspiration, John Piper, mesage in a bottle, plastic bottle, romance, travel

Three pencil sketches in a bottle I found washed ashore in the Caribbean in 2008.
That night, after my mom had taken the drawings out of the bottle, we passed them around, speculating. Was this the work of a famous artist we weren’t familiar with? Did we hold priceless treasure in our hands, the flippant gesture of an artist bored at sea? What was this?!
I emailed John the very night I got home.
Dear Mr. Piper,
We are strangers to each other, or were, but you should know this: I found your pencil sketches—the ones you put in a big plastic bottle and tossed in the sea!
Two hour later, he wrote back to me!
What an amazing thing to happen. It has been drifting around since November 2006! When I threw it over the side of P & O cruise ship Oceana, (but then you might know that already, I can’t really remember what I put on the notes? It was only a bit of fun and just a very long shot). I had no idea where it would end up; probably swallowed by some passing whale perhaps? So where on earth did you find it? I am so totally overcome by this event.
I live in Exeter, in the County of Devon, in the South West of England. I am retired and painting and writing full time.
This meant John’s bottle was a year and a half old, which is actually fairly old for a plastic bottle at sea. Plastic degrades pretty quickly at sea. Sadly, it is often mistaken for food by sea critters who can choke on it. So I was glad to fish out John’s bottle, since I know he didn’t want that to happen!
As we emailed more, I got to know John a little better. Turns out he was a military man, like my own grandfather. John served 30 years in the British Army, and my grandfather (whose name—you guessed it!—was also John), served 30 years in the United States Navy.
Here’s a picture of John Piper in his Army days, with buddies. John is second from the left:
Just for fun, and because I’ve always been ridiculously proud of him (not to mention his dashing good looks), here’s a picture of my own grandfather Johnnie in his Navy days:
John Piper served from 1955 (he was only 15 years old!) until 1984, when he retired from the Royal Signals as a Captain.
Once he retired, John turned his focus to his art. Of course, he’d always been an artist. Check out this snippet from his artist bio:
“Drawing and watercolour painting wildlife became something of an obsession from a very early age, and John still has a great fondness for wildlife and botanical painting. During his latter school years he exhibited in various national youth exhibitions; winning recognition for his paintings of British Birds.”
And now, all these years later:
“John has exhibited in several locations in Spain, the Balearics and Australia, also locally in various galleries and the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital. Always travelling, he has developed a great love for Spain, Spanish culture and music, which has inspired some of his more colourful and dramatic works.”
See, for example, John’s paintings:
The theme of travel is almost always present in John’s work. This love for travel, I have begun to see, is a persistent theme among message-in-a-bottle senders. It is a passion I share with each of them. In my dream world, all the senders whose bottles I’ve found would get together in one place, and we would spend hours talking about our travels, into the night.
Speaking of travel and adventure and romance on the high seas, my favorite paintings from John are his marine paintings—particularly the ones of boats and harbors. Living in Exeter provides ample opportunity to study boats on water.
If those don’t make you nostalgic for being on the water, check your pulse!
For someone who is not a musician, John has an uncanny knack for capturing the energy of music in his paintings.
Look on John’s paintings, ye mighty, and despair:
Don’t those two make a fantastic pair?
And this one, inspired by Picasso’s “The Old Guitarist” is nothing to sneeze at either:
John loves Miles Davis. Is this tribute not magnificent?
I did ask him the big question, of course: why did he send a message in a bottle?
He wrote,
“The message in the bottle idea, was rather spontaneous really, I suppose I had enjoyed the classes aboard the ship, and liked the girl who was tutoring, so over the side it went! It just goes to show, what can happen when fate takes a hand.”
Indeed. I am always amazed by how much good can come of the spontaneous gesture of sending a message in a bottle.
I spoke with my mom about this bottle recently. As we recalled the details of that night, and the utter surprise we felt upon unrolling John’s sketches, she said:
“Did you ever think in your wildest dreams that you’d find artwork in a bottle? It’s just not something that crosses your mind,”
No, it didn’t cross my mind. But it did cross the Atlantic! 🙂
[All photos of John Piper’s paintings in this post are his property, and are reproduced here with his permission.]
Pingback: Artlantic Message in a Bottle, Part One | Message In A Bottle Hunter
Awesome !I really, enjoy reading your stories. In a way your stories parallel my own in a way. Being an old antique-r, myself. And being around old things my entire life.Looking back now I realize that must have been those families last trace of existence in this world in most cases I’m sure.
I’m watercolor artist in ca
Ifornia who just polished off a bottle of wine
I think we know what happens next.
Next, you join the mystery 😉
Exactly.
Does John sell his work? Would love a print of that Miles Davis? I found this blog via an article on CNN and find your stories amazing. You should definitely write a book one day. I could totally see this as a coffee table book with great pics and the stories of the bottles and those who sent them.
Aleisha, I like the way you think! Thanks for coming by 🙂
Really interesting story Clint…another amazing find!!!
I should send you some of my paintings….just put a couple (actually all I ever did) on my old high school site on Facebook. Unlike John Piper, I have absolutely no talent for painting at all…my Mom made me take art lessons as a kid and she and Dad kept my “work” even though it is awful….I took the pics when I was in Florida a couple of weeks ago….I’ll send them to your gmail account.
Good story!!!
Phil
“Look on John’s paintings, ye mighty, and despair.” You crack me up, Clint. Thanks for sharing another tale and some intriguing art to boot.
🙂 I may have included that specially for you…
I really, enjoy reading your stories. In a way your stories parallel my own in a way. Being an old antique-r, myself. And being around old things my entire life. I remember when my father would drag home old steamer trunks when I was child in 70’s. These old smelling large and beat up trunks would be locked tight and full of peoples belongings. And these trunks in most cases were packed in the 20’s and thirties. Untouched from the owners last voyage across the seas and land. There were pictures, memorabilia, cloths, cards, toys, perfume, brushes and things made of silk such as a mothers hand fan for those hot days on the deck of a ship. Not exactly, a bottle but was very exciting to open up and discover all those wonderful contents. Looking back now I realize that must have been those families last trace of existence in this world in most cases I’m sure. But not forgotten by me. I still remember one family’s voyage in lithographic type black and white hand colored pictures.A little girl of about 8 or so my age at the time.She was standing beside a large wooden horse with her best dress on as her mother and father looked on. You could tell it was some far and distant place in the world at the time. Lost to time I guess. I only wish these days, I could come across stuff like that again. Thanks for bringing people together.
That’s amazing! What a treat it must have been to open those old steamer trunks–it sounds very exciting 🙂