Stonington — For more than 35 years Russell Jinishian has been regarded as the nation’s leading authority on contemporary marine art.

Late last year, Jinishian relocated his gallery with an inventory of more than a thousand paintings, drawings, sculpture, scrimshaw and ship models to Stonington borough from Fairfield.

Now, tucked away in a former women’s clothing shop, Jinishian has filled seemingly every inch of wall, floor, storage and closet space — he’s even got paintings in the former dressing rooms — with nautical art ranging in price from $200 to $250,000.

Some pieces date to the mid-1800s and others are more current, as recent as last week. He takes them on commission from artists and collectors and is incredibly knowledgeable about the art and artists. More importantly, he’s happy to share everything he knows with anyone who walks in his door.

“I want people to come in and appreciate things,” he said. “I have a lot of expertise, but I’m also available and approachable. I don’t want people to be intimidated. I want to provide as much information as they are looking for.”

Growing up in Old Greenwich, Jinishian spent time sailing and fishing on Long Island Sound. He developed an interest in art at an early age and studied at the Cornell University School of Art & Architecture. After leaving Cornell, he worked for the Silvermine Guild Arts Center in New Canaan and as an art critic for various publications. In 1982, he took a position at the maritime gallery at the Mystic Seaport Museum and stayed there until 1994, leaving as its director.

Jinishian worked for other galleries for a few years and in 1997 decided to open his own — the J. Russell Jinishian Gallery.

Today, he is an authority on maritime art and said his expertise comes from a great interest in and appreciation of the topic and decades in the business.

“I’ve looked at tens of thousands of paintings and that’s how I’ve vetted things,” he said.

Marine art, he explained, is anything in, on or about the water. “It’s not just a clipper ship on the high seas, but it could be children on a beach, or Latimer Lighthouse, a river boat on the Mississippi, or Puget Sound, Venice, or military ships,” he said.

In his gallery there are two paintings kitty-corner just inside the door. To the left is Scottish-American painter (1775-1845) Robert Salmon’s “View of Liverpool,” an oil listed for $185,000. On the right, Don Demers’ “Windswept Surf,” with a view of Block Island in the distance, also an oil and priced at $65,000. Demers comes from Massachusetts and is one of the most collected marine artists in the country today.

Jinishian uses the juxtaposition of the two paintings to make his point about different kinds of maritime art. It’s that way throughout the gallery, where visitors are treated to a wonderful sensory overload of water-related artwork. A painting of a steamship is beside another of racing sloops and then there’s a half-hull of a keel boat or a vintage barometer.

The only non-nautical art in the gallery is that of Jinishian’s late wife, Patricia Warfield. One of her pieces is a 7-foot black macramé crow and another an oil painting of a racehorse atop a Corona cigar.

Warfield died in 2016 and her death is what caused Jinishian to move back to Stonington, where the couple resided when he worked at Mystic Seaport.

He was visiting last summer and had been thinking about returning to Stonington when he drove by the Water Street space that is now his gallery and saw the property owner out front. Jinishian stopped and the owner invited him to come in and look around.

“It was a serendipitous moment,” he said, saying within six months he’d relocated his gallery, sold his former home, and was living back in Stonington.

Some of the commissioned art in his charge is displayed at other locations, like the Union League Club in New York City and the Riverside Yacht Club in Greenwich. And a show he curated just closed at the Ocean House in Watch Hill.

So far, Jinishian has attracted a few serious customers at the borough gallery, but said the majority of his sales occur through his website. Just recently, some marine art aficionados visiting the J.M.W. Turner exhibit at the Mystic Seaport stopped by his gallery, too. But Stonington, he imagines, will be a slower pace.

“This is a new business dynamic for me,” he said. “I know July and August will be busy, but I hope I can slow down. We’ll see.”

Business Snapshot

What: J Russell Jinishian Gallery

Where: 152 Water St., Stonington

Hours: What else: The gallery is typically open 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday or by appointment

Phone: (860) 245-4400

Website: www.jrusselljinishiangallery.com