Door County Artist Contributes to Peninsula State Park Centennial Celebration

Artist Dave Hackett’s connections to Peninsula State Park run deep. It was 1957 when a 17-year-old Hackett made his first trip to Peninsula Sate Park at the invitation of his girlfriend Carol, the granddaughter of Peninsula’s first superintendent A.E. Doolittle.

Dave and Carol eventually married and have since moved to Fish Creek after Dave retired from his career as an art director.

Most recently, Hackett donated his time to complete a watercolor montage for Peninsula State Park’s Centennial. Hackett felt that the montage-style lent itself well to covering the 100 years of the park.

“I wanted to present the old with the new, and I wanted to cover as many popular activities as I could in one painting,” Hackett explained. “I picked out memorable images that are familiar to park visitors, such as the golf course, camping, and biking, but I wanted to integrate them with images from the past that many of us were not familiar with.”

The less-familiar images – Camp Meenahga, The Huber Theater, the old Eagle Tower and the old Ephraim park entrance – are presented in a sepia tone while the new images are in full color, thus creating a visual transition from old to new.

Hackett also drew from his own, personal connection to the park in the process.

“I gave A.E. Doolittle a central focus in the painting; visually, all of the attention is directed toward him,” Hackett noted. “Preserving the natural beauty of the park while still making it accessible to the public was one of Doolittle’s most lasting contributions.”

Dave Hackett’s original watercolor montage will be on display at various banks around Door County during summer and fall. The 12” x 16” limited-edition prints of the montage will be available for $25 in Fish Creek (J. Jeffrey Taylor Jewelers, the Nicolet Beach Store, the Peninsula State Park Golf Course, the Nature Center, and Headquarters), Sister Bay (Tannenbaum Holiday Shop and Sister Bay Trading Company), Jacksonport (Jacksonport Craft Cottage), and Ephraim (Blue Dolphin House). All proceeds from the sale of the prints will benefit Peninsula State Park education and improvements.

Peninsula State Park is celebrating its Centennial with a year-long schedule of special events. For more information visit http://www.peninslulafriends.org/100.