The Photographer, by artist and illustrator Peter "Spike" Wademan, has been counted as one of the finest examples of seafaring art works in the world.
His painting will feature in the annual International Marine Art Exhibition in the Maritime Gallery of Mystic Seaport: The Museum of America and the Sea, near Boston, Massachusetts, from September to November.
Wademan said Americans bought much maritime art and he hoped the exhibition would be a springboard into the US market.
"Mystic Seaport attracts marine artists from around the world. If you can get in, you're getting somewhere.
"If I can win the historic segment, it will get bought and they'll start using it as prints."
Wademan based his painting on a photograph, taken by Martha Harvey in 1888, of trawlers being prepared at Gloucester Harbour, in Massachusetts.
The title referenced Mrs Harvey, and Wademan paid tribute to the early American professional photographer by depicting her with her plate camera on the quay.
The intricately detailed oil on watercolour canvas was painted late last year and won the best of exhibition prize and $2000 in the 2010 Locations Art Awards, in Queenstown.
Wademan said it took six weeks to paint, but longer to research information on rigging for accuracy.
"It was like a jigsaw puzzle, trying to work out what went where and why," he said.
A professional artist since 1965, Wademan used to chalk drawings of ships on footpaths as a 5-year-old, where he grew up in Nottingham, England.
He worked in the advertising industry in London and Sydney for 30 years, specialising in technical illustrations including cutaways of ships, aeroplanes and cars.
A Queenstown resident since 2000 and working in his studio on McDonnell Rd, near Arrow Junction, he painted The Photographer with a mixture of aesthetic theory and commercial practicality.
"I like the rear-end of boats, going away from you, because you can see more of the curve of it. Boats coming towards you are too aggressive.
"A painting has got to appeal to the female of the species. Non-threatening, calmish, blue sky and get something in that will appeal to the ladies.
"This is why paintings of aeroplanes don't sell."
His other projects included a large $10,000 painting of the Battle of Trafalgar, commissioned by a Christchurch businessman, this year.
