SPOTLIGHT

SEVEN24/

MARY BETH KOETH

SPOTLIGHT Nautical NUANCES

FORT LAUDERDALE’S MONIQUE RICHTER BEAUTIFIES WATERCRAFT USING BOTH BYGONE AND MODERN ARTISTIC TECHNIQUES

The road to Monique Richter’s career handpainting the backs of sportfishing boats is not a linear one. Growing up in Fort Lauderdale, she attended American Heritage on a fastpitch softball scholarship. She also turned pro in wakeboarding in eleventh grade, traveling to destinations like Australia, Europe, and the Philippines for nearly a decade. But, during a night out with friends days before a tour overseas, someone stepped on her toe and broke it, effectively ending her wakeboarding career. “I had to figure out another career path that was still something I wanted to do,” recalls Richter. So, she started running boats in St. Thomas, working her way up to captain. While figuring out her new career, her early love of art kept calling her back.

Her mom taught her how to draw at age 3. In school, she couldn’t take art classes until senior year, during which time Richter says her teacher allowed her to create her own syllabus and project list. She went on to win tons of awards at art shows in Broward County and later began selling fine art at events on Las Olas. While working on a boat in Atlantis, Bahamas, Richter remembers walking around one of the docks and seeing a boat’s transom painted faux teak. “I wasn’t impressed at all,” she says. “I left the Bahamas [knowing] I could do this way better.”

She now combines her love of art and water by working on 20 to 30 boats a month, hand-painting names, faux teakwood, and sportfish onto watercraft ranging from 65 to 550 feet long. Since 2016, she’s worked on 896 boats and counting, with a client list that includes Johnny Depp, Jimmy Buffett, Alan Jackson, and the who’s who across international borders. Aside from highprofile clientele, she also works for 54 boatbuilders. What sets her apart is her style of airbrushing names, use of platinum leaf, and the age-old technique of gold leaf that master John Teeto taught her. The “godfather” of boatbuilding, Rory Merritt, gave her a chance to paint faux teak on his boats and helped her to understand how to capture the look of real teak.

In addition to the marine industry, Richter gets commissions for side projects such as this month’s large-scale mural for a waterfront home and painting the tail and wings of a Gulfstream plane. She’s also making time to focus on another passion: horses. She’ll soon turn 10 acres of land in Jupiter Farms into Blue Ridge Farms, a facility for kids with disabilities to come for therapy. “I paint, I work, and then I go to my horses,” says Richter. (instagram. com/artist_monique_richter)

South Florida artist Monique Richter spends her days traveling around the world painting multimillion-dollar sportfishing boats using gold leaf.