Interview: Semine Hazar, Shedding Light on the Importance of Our Oceans
1. Tell us about your journey to becoming a world-renowned lighthouse oil painter
I was a financial executive until I retired from my job. When my late husband, who was a captain, passed away, I began taking painting lessons at prominent art schools, including Atelier Teymur Ryzayev, established by Azerbaijan’s state artist, who is also a Hermitage Museum Gold Medalist, to learn how to compose and paint lighthouse paintings. I began painting lighthouses as a memorial to my late husband, who, as a captain, found his sea route based on the silent light signals from lighthouses.
(this painting was named after Sessiz Gemi /Quiet Ship a poem by Yahya Kemal Beyatlı, which was made into a song by actress, singer, composer, and lyricist Humeyra.)
What started as a very personal project took on a larger life when I began exhibiting my sea and lighthouse-themed oil paintings via the Painters Club (Ressamlar Dernegi) in Istanbul. With my lighthouse paintings, I began drawing attention to and reaching a larger audience regarding the importance of oceans to our world, our ecology, and our need for us to guard them with their silent signals.
2. When and how did you transition from exhibiting locally in Istanbul to internationally?
In 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic during lockdown, a friend from the atelier Selva Ozelli Esq, CPA, Artist and Author of Sustainably Investing in Digital Assets Globally curated a group art show with ten artists from our atelier, which was originally going to be shown at the Balat Culture Center in Istanbul. But with the lockdowns, our group art show at Balat Culture Center was cancelled. Gallerist Cem Ustuner of Pinelo Art Gallery prepared a video of our group art show titled “Atelier Teymur Rzayev’s First Digital Climate Change Art Show,” which was shown at the world’s first climate change museum, CUHK Jockey Club Museum of Climate Change in Hong Kong, during World Environment Day on June 5, 2020, instead.
From 2020 to 2021, I exhibited in numerous global museums, United Nations Conferences, including COP26, and NGOs. And kept going ever since without looking back.
3. Have you exhibited at the United Nations?
Since 2020, my work was selected for exhibition at several United Nations Conferences, including COP26 and several World Oceans Day events, which is run by Oceanic Global.
This year, my painting titled “Lighthouse at the End of the World” was featured at the United Nations during the inaugural World Glaciers Day event as well.
4. Tell us about your art exhibitions in the United States
I began exhibiting in the United States in 2021 at Oceanic Global. In 2024, my painting titled “Clear Water” was the cover photo of “Pink and Blue,” a group art show consisting of 11 artists, oil painters and photographers-- from 6 different countries at Howland Cultural Center in Beacon, NY.
(This painting was named after musician Pete Seger’s Sloop)
The "Clear Water” painting is of the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, a replica of 18th and 19th-century Dutch cargo sloops. It's owned and operated by the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc., a non-profit established by award-winning musician Pete Seeger -- who was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993, the Kennedy Center Lifetime Achievement Honor in 1994, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. The sloop serves as an educational platform and a symbol of environmental activism, particularly in the fight to clean up the Hudson River.
The same painting was featured in the World Maritime Day event for Climate Week NYC at the Putnam History Museum in Cold Spring, NY, as well, and was purchased and added to the art collection of Pete Seeger’s producer, who also authored a book about the musician.
The same year, my “Concord Point Lighthouse” painting was featured in a yearlong exhibition at the Havre de Grace Maritime Museum, which added one of my paintings to their permanent collection.
Concord Point Lighthouse is located in Havre de Grace, Maryland, and is significant as the second-oldest lighthouse in Maryland and a historic aid to navigation. It stands at the mouth of the Susquehanna River where it enters the Chesapeake Bay across from the Havre de Grace Maritime Museum, and was in service for 148 years, from 1827 until 1975.
The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the US and a National Treasure. Its 64,000-square-mile watershed encompasses one of the most economically significant regions of the United States. It is protected by the landmark Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement (adopted in 2014, amended in 2020) that calls for, among other things, conservation and restoration of the treasured water, sea, and landscapes with participation from six states - New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.
Unfortunately in the 1970s, the Chesapeake Bay was found to contain one of the planet's first identified marine dead zones, where waters were so depleted of oxygen that they were unable to support life, resulting in massive fish kills which is what I intended to draw attention to with my Concord Lighthouse painting, so we collectively work towards avoiding marine dead zones in our world.
5. Tell us about the art projects you have been working on this year
This year, starting in March, I exhibited at the United Nations during the inaugural World Glaciers Day celebrated on March 21, 2025, jointly with World Water Day. The day highlighted the crucial role of glaciers in global water resources and the urgent need for action to protect them from the impacts of climate change. This inaugural event was part of the International Year of Glaciers' Preservation 2025.
In April, I took part in the “Our Power Our Planet Art Show,” which was featured in 3 countries and 11 cultural institutions, including but not limited to the Lord Howe Island Museum, Morton Memorial Library, the Queens Botanical Garden Climate Art Festival, among others.
During May, I took part in the “Stories of City Birds” art show, which was featured by the Havre de Grace Maritime Museum and National Lighthouse Museum.
During July and August, I am taking part in the “I Love New York” art show which celebrates NY for being the birthplace of the US environmental movement at the Cunneen-Hackett Arts Center in Poughkeepsie, NY where I am for the first time featuring my “NY’s Lighthouses” including the Statue of Liberty painting in celebration of USA250.
I will continue to exhibit the “NY’s Lighthouses” series together with esteemed Hudson Valley photographer Barbara Todd to bring our art show “New York’s Lighthouses” to the National Lighthouse Museum from September 4 to December 13, 2025, to present Lighthouses of NY based on our unique but complementary artistic styles and interpretations.
This art show celebrates Lighthouses of New York, the birthplace of the US environmental movement, which are recognized landmarks with symbolic and aesthetic qualities, including distinct architectural characteristics located in picturesque settings.
Many of these lighthouses are now lovingly preserved and open to the public, evoking feelings of hope, guidance, resilience, and revival. Their depiction in my paintings and Barbara’s photography captures New York’s coastal landscapes and maritime history, as once these lighthouses played a crucial role in the region's maritime history, guiding ships and enabling trade and transportation.
The exhibition highlights important aspects of the region's past, and its adaptation to technological advances with a strong connection to the Hudson River School, America's first art movement, which celebrated the beauty of New York and its surrounding landscapes that are an integral part of ongoing preservation efforts the National Lighthouse Museum is actively involved in.
For this exhibition I painted the first lighthouse that was built in New York, which is the fourth-oldest working lighthouse in the nation -- MONTAUK POINT LIGHTHOUSE in Long Island, as well as lighthouses of Staten Island, New York, the Hudson River including the Little Red Lighthouse which represents the power of community engagement in protecting historical structures and highlights the ongoing need for environmental awareness and responsible stewardship of our natural resources, especially the vital Hudson River ecosystem and Jefferson County which sits on the US-Canada border, connected to Ontario by the scenic Thousand Islands International Bridge across the St. Lawrence River, boasting significant tourism, maritime and military importance.
I also painted the Reefs of New York because New York State has 16 artificial reef sites as well as natural oyster and coral reefs in the area. The National Lighthouse Museum on Staten Island is collaborating with the Billion Oyster Project to restore oyster reefs in New York Harbor. These oyster reefs are being established to improve water quality, provide habitat for marine life, and help protect the city from storm damage. The project aims to restore one billion oysters by 2035.
6. What are your future plans?
With the support of great institutions, which I am grateful for, I would like to continue painting lighthouses of this world and exhibit them globally to draw attention to and spread the message that we need to protect our oceans.
7. How can people reach you and find out more about what you are working on?
Email: seminehazar@yahoo.com
Fcebook: https://www.facebook.com/semine.hazar
Galleries: Ro Gallery NYC, Pinelo Art Gallery
Auction House: BankCosta Auction House
Glossary Terms:
Selva Ozelli Esq, CPA is a legal and finance executive with diversified experience dealing with highly complex issues in the field of international taxation and related matters within the banking, securities, Fintech, alternative and traditional investment funds. Her first of its kind legal analyses involving tax laws, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), blockchain technology, solar technology and the environment and have been published in journals, books and by the OECD. Her writings have been translated into 15 languages.
