Biography: Phil Uhl - Marine Artist

Phil Uhl enjoys an excellent reputation as one of the worlds most accomplished marine artists. For over four decades, Uhl has traveled the globe to capture the excitement and beauty of the ocean and sailing, on canvas, film, and video tape.

Phil was born in Toledo, Ohio, but grew up on the shores of Lake Erie in Luna Pier Michigan. Phil was the second of seven very creative siblings. In 1970 Uhl was living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin earning eighty dollars a month as a VISTA volunteer. (Domestic Peace Corps) When his term ended, he decided that he was finished with cold winters, and purchased a one way ticket to Hawaii.

In September of 1971, Uhl stepped of the bus in Waikiki with four hundred dollars in his pocket, -and dreams of Gaugauin in his head. After a number of odd jobs, he started painting again, having done oils and watercolors as a child. Phil got a part time job at a local art gallery and spent Sundays selling his work at the Honolulu Zoo Fence. After a few years, even with numerous showings around town, he was just barely able to make a living. Not satisfied with his future prospects in fine art, Phil began to teach himself how to take photographs. By the late 70s he had landed a job as a non-paid consultant to Pan American Airways. Pan Am was interested in bringing sailors to Hawaii to compete in the new Pan Am Clipper Cup Yacht Racing Series. Phil, who had been involved with boats all of his life, now had the job of traveling around the world giving slide shows of Hawaii yacht racing, in order to convince the worlds top sailors to enter the event.

By the mid 80s, Uhl had added video coverage of sailing events to his list of capabilities, when he and his San Francisco based partner, Leslie DeMeuse, started Channel Sea Television. Soon after that, an additional office was opened in Tokyo, with another long time friend and partner, Karou Soehata.

  In 1986, Phil was chosen by Sail America, to work with Dennis Conner and "Stars and Stripes" to document their successful challenge to win back the America's Cup from Australia. In 1991, Channel Sea TV was contracted to produce the Television coverage, for Bill Koch and the America 3 Foundation's, 1992 winning America's Cup team. In 1995, CSTV provided the footage seen by millions around the world, as they followed the history making effort of the America 3 Women's Team, -the first ever to compete in the America's Cup. For the 2000 America's Cup in Auckland, Uhl coproduced a series of programs with former America's Cup winners Bill Koch and John Bertrand, that aired on New Zealand TV during the event. In 2012 Phil's entire America's Cup video tape library was transferred to the archival storage vaults at Mystic Maritime Museum in Connecticut by Maritime Productions. The UHL COLLECTION will eventually be available on line as part of the largest database of America's Cup images in the world.

Meanwhile, in Hawaii, CSTV was responsible for the worldwide Television coverage of the KENWOOD CUP SERIES, after the Kenwood Corporation took over the sponsorship of the Clipper Cup from Pan Am, as well as, the TV coverage of the biennial TRANSPAC Race .

In 2006 Roy E. Disney and Leslie DeMeuse formed Pacific High Productions and asked Phil to act as Coordinating Producer for the theatrical documentary "Morning Light" released by the Walt Disney Company in 2008.

In 1992, Uhl began experimenting with creating art on a Macintosh computer. Since then he has  been at the forefront of the new digital art movement, combining today's high technology with traditional techniques. Now, thanks to the recent development of high-resolution, pigment based printers, His state of the art digital paintings are available as original fine art prints. While Uhl still is interested, and involved, in all kinds of art expression, most of his time is devoted to fine art and photography.

Uhl, while primarily self taught, studied Graphic Design at the Dayton Art Institute, and Printmaking with Michael Ponce DeLeon, at the Art Students League, in New York City. Over the years, Phil has received numerous fine art, photographic, design, and video awards, including an EMMY from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. His biography appears in "Who's Who in the World, Who's Who in America, and Who's Who in American Art." His paintings, original prints, video programs, and photographs, are found in private and public collections around the world.