CAMDEN — During the outdoor Schooner Talent Show at Camden Harbor Park, part of the 2013 Camden Windjammer Festival Aug. 30-Sept. 1, there was another show going on behind the performers, albeit subtle. While schooner crews sang and danced, Buckley Smith, a Green’s Island artist, was busily sketching away, swooping chalk lines across a large canvas. In the hour or so it took for the talent show to conclude, a completed drawing of sailors under full sail appeared (shown here behind the Irish jig dancer and fiddler). It sold to the highest bidder for $500. Not bad work — if you can do it.

A sailor himself, Smith has been drawing for 55 years. We found him the next day on the deck of the windjammer, Nathaniel Bowditch, where he was busy sketching another piece with charcoal and white chalk on a big roll of blue background photography paper. It took him about 45 minutes to complete a depiction of two schooners.

Creating live art is a walk in the park for Smith. “When I’m doing stuff in public, I can draw pretty fast, but when I spend a lot more time on my other projects, like my paintings, even my paintings are pretty quick,” he said. “I like to do plein air paintings where you go out for three hours outdoors, get an impression and come back.”

His boat and sailing portraits are pretty straightforward and realistic, until it veers into the surreal with his fantasy marine line, where schooners soar in the air, ride on the backs of whales and fly to the moon. In addition, he hand crafts sea chests and makes wood carvings and boat models, all meticulously painted.

If you missed Smith during the Windjammer Weekend Festival, check out his work at buckleysmith.com.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com.