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MAREK SARBA ARTIST - Stories of the Sea
by Sara Drought Nebel

The Requiem
"I paint what I know." I have heard artist, Marek Sarba, say this many times. He does not paint meandering sailboats, or nostalgic beaches or whimsical dunes. He paints the ocean. He knows the ocean. The wild, deep, stormy, vast, unforgiving ocean. He paints stories of the sea. Marek's story began in Poland. As a child he loved to draw. When he was old enough, he studied electronics, and then was drafted into the Polish Navy and served there for 3 years. After the Navy he took a job at a shipyard, and because of his electronic skills, earned a pretty good salary, but he wanted to work on ships - salvage tugs. He had a family now, he knew boats, the pay was much better, and he wanted to see the world. He knew that they rarely hired for these jobs from shipyards so Marek took a job apprenticing as a train engineer, and became a head engineer for about a year. Then finally the job he had been applying for came through. He was hired to work on salvage tugs, and went back to the ocean. These experiences are what led to the paintings we see in the body of his work today.
Close Approach
Art was always in Marek's future. He had won the admiration of his wife Barbara, with a drawing that impressed her. In 1967 she gave him his first paint set as a gift. He made his first attempts at painting with this basic set, again to please his wife, and create art for their home. He would store up the experiences on the wild ocean with stormy skies, rescuing battered sea vessels, ghost ships, ships with raging fires, and even ships cut in half by the merciless sea. Seeing endless horizons, dripping red sunsets, and rolling foam. Trying to sleep at night, trusting those at the helm, lying in an inverted triangle wedge to avoid falling out of bed. These voyages went on for months and even a year on one trip.
The Window	The Full Ahead
After the tugs Marek took a job on cargo ships, continuing to make his living at sea, seeing ports in Europe, Canada and the United States. Before one of these trips Marek and Barbara made a plan. They sold their house, liquidated everything, and on a "vacation trip" with their daughters, sought to stay in the US permanently. To avoid being forced to go back to Poland they quickly moved to Florida. Marek took a job in Tampa and Barbara took a job in her field of science, and they enrolled their daughters in school. During these six years, Marek began painting stories of the sea. The stories he had lived. The stories and the ocean he knew so well. They wanted to move north and specifically looked at Connecticut, with its good schools, museums, and ships. Mystic Seaport was seeking maritime artists and Marek sent his work to Russell Jinishian, for review. In 1987 Marek was told there was a place for his work at Mystic Seaport Galleries, and he moved his family to CT.
PQ - HMS Bluebell
They landed in a house in Old Saybrook, and Marek worked at Pratt & Whitney building and repairing jet engines and Barbara worked at Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson in NJ, commuting from CT. Marek continued to paint, and acquired American citizenship. When Barbara injured her back and could no longer make the commute, they again changed course. The plan was to find a building where they could open a coffee shop and combine it with a gallery. They found a building with "good bones" in the historic district of Clinton and Marek worked nights restoring it, and eventually retired from Pratt & Whitney. MSarba Cafe emerged with a gourmet coffee shop downstairs and gallery of paintings upstairs. One day, an elder man walked in and asked if he could take his coffee upstairs to the gallery. After he stayed up there for a long time, Marek went up to see if he had any questions. The man was staring at one painting, a portrait of the "PQ - HMS Bluebell" from WWII. The man had been on that ship and seen his former ship's departure, on what was to be its fatal final voyage, as it was sunk by a torpedo, leaving only one survivor. The man mysteriously left, and Marek never saw him again....
And The Band Played On
The dramatic tragic human story of Titanic had always fascinated Marek Sarba. When the wreckage was found in the 1980s, he was immediately drawn to it, immersed in it, and knew he would have to paint it. But how? How to paint the convergence of so much sadness? So many human stories in one ocean tragedy... He began to construct the armature in his mind and do the research. There would come to be 57 souls explored. 57 portraits. All representing the others who were lost, their images lovingly depicted and their stories told against the backdrop of the ornate central staircase. Completion of the large painting "And The Band Played On" took several months. He made 1,912 prints. He gave lectures and told the stories of the people in the painting. The last lecture was on July 14, 2022 at Lyme Art Association, and you can go to the website and see it. lymeartassociation.org. After the Titanic painting came "The Requiem". A sensitive melancholy painting of the cable ship the CS Mackay-Bennet, assigned to collect the bodies of the victims shortly after the sinking.
Temporary Line
A personal favorite of mine (and an award winning painting in Lyme Art Association's marine exhibit, Ship to Shore) is "The Full Ahead" - a whimsical painting of the relaxed pose of a crewmate in the engine room on a big working ship with all of the gauges indicating a smooth and safe ride. A time when the man at the switch can put up his feet and read the newspaper for a while... All of these works can be seen on Marek Sarba's Facebook page, all with full descriptions of their stories. Many of these paintings are still in his collection, and some are available. As he continues his work at the age of 77, Marek has decided that "And The Band Played On" is now for sale. It is available through the Russell Jinishian Gallery in Stonington, CT.
Gate to the World (self portrait)
If you have any questions for Marek, message him on his Facebook page, and he will answer! These stories rest in his heart the way many of these ships are resting, cradled on the ocean floor, and he wants their stories to be known. And the man painted on..... Marek Sarba continues to tell stories of the sea. -Sara Drought Nebel