COLTON -- Robert Selby of Colton received the George Gray Award for Artistic Excellence at the Coast Guard Art Program (COGAP) event in New York City recently.

Selby's oil painting "Guardians of the Puerto Rico Coast," is a four-foot-long triptych of scenes from the artist's deployment on board the Coast Guard Cutter Texanos in the Caribbean last year. The crew depicted in one panel is aboard the small boat of the Texanos as the crew transfers illegal migrants to the Dominican Navy off the coast of the Dominican Republic. Another panel depicts a servicemember standing watch as the Texanos exits San Juan Harbor and in the other panel is a female servicemember standing watch as the cutter approaches Mona Island.

Commandant of the Coast Guard Adm. Karl Schultz attended the event to accept 40 new pieces of art into the extensive collection and to present the George Gray Award to Selby.

The works of art — all donated by COGAP's talented cadre of member artists — educate diverse audiences about the Coast Guard's people and its work as it ensures the nation's security at home and abroad and executes its 11 statutory missions. 

The 2019 collection will be displayed at Federal Hall National Memorial starting July 10 and will run through September 2019. The memorial is located at 26 Wall Street in New York City, diagonally across from the New York Stock Exchange.