Made in Vermont: SV Phoenix Studio

LAKE CHAMPLAIN, Vt. (WCAX) – To know Hannah O’Brien, you also have to know S.V. Phoenix.

“She’s a Hans Christian 33,” she lovingly says of her sailboat. She bought Phoenix three years ago and lives on board during the summer months, enjoying Lake Champlain.

“I’ve been sailing since I was a kid, since I was like 7. It sort of became more of a way of life when I got Phoenix,” she says. O’Brien may have her captain’s license, but the captain of this ship is her cat, Roger.

“Working on boats, that’s something that we say all the time. Like someone says something and you say ‘roger,’” she explains. Roger roams the deck freely and is a hit on social media.

O’Brien has loved and worked on boats for quite a while, though living on one is a new adventure, especially during the winter. To escape the cold, she sailed to Maryland to spend her first winter below deck, where the temps are a bit more favorable. In an effort to weather the winter month, this sailor was looking for a creative outlet.

“I minored in art in college, and I always did a lot of oil painting. Which is not very conducive to a sailboat,” she laughs. A lack of space would have made that a pain in the boat. O’Brien opted for something she had learned in high school — block printing.

“I didn’t have a job, I didn’t know a single person. So I picked it up and just kind of like, buried my head in it for a couple of months and that’s how the business started,” she says. S.V. Phoenix Studio opened in November 2021, and O’Brien makes her prints year-round, both on land and at sea. Though, she prefers the ambiance of her boat.

“Like last winter when I was printing on land it was driving me crazy because it was not the same as my boat,” she says, while showing us her process. Her work is inspired by what’s around her, loons, herons, the lake, and of course, Roger.

“All of my block prints have like, a very nautical theme. There’s that saying that’s like, ‘paint what you know’ and this is obviously what I know,” she says.

Her prints are her biggest sellers, but she does something called “The Postcard Project,” a subscription service on Patreon. All of her other work can be found on Etsy or at local markets. Local art, made on a boat, that captures the beauty of Vermont? Now that’s something to sail-ebrate.

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