Calendar Extols City as Pretty as a Picture

NEWPORT BEACH —  No one should come to Newport Beach without visiting the landmarks that make the picturesque city well known, Jim Barrett contends.

So Barrett commissioned local artists to paint watercolors of 13 landmarks, including the historic Balboa Pavilion, the Fun Zone, Hoag Hospital and the famous Balboa ferry for a 1993 calendar.

Barrett found large corporations to sponsor the calendar, which cost $22,000 to print, and got permission from city officials to use the Newport Beach logo.

This year Barrett is giving the 10,000 calendars away, but in future years he hopes to make a profit.

The 400 calendars placed in the lobby of City Hall are being snatched up.

“They’re almost all gone,” said Deputy City Manager Kenneth J. Delino. “Everybody loves the calendar. It’s attractive and a nice memento of the city.”

Barrett, 52, a longtime Newport Beach resident and business owner, said: “Newport’s been good to me. I just wanted to give something back.”

But the project has sentimental value too. Jane London, a Newport Beach artist and friend of Barrett, had completed 10 of the watercolor portraits for the calendar when she died last month.

Said Barrett: “We’d have lunch while she painted the pictures of the Back Bay and Hoag Hospital. . . . This calendar is a living tribute to her.”