Crabs & Such

18 June 2021

CRABS & SUCH 1

Growing up trapping, shelling, and eating crabs at Fenwick Island, Delaware,  I quickly connected with the Maryland crab culture when we acquired a cottage on a branch of the Chesapeake Bay.  I have since painted several crabs and crablike creatures, ranging from realistic to fantasy.

 "Chesapeake Blue Crab" is an unadorned representation that I painted along with a few native Chesapeake Bay fish for a gallery show.


Buried in our cottage on Carpenters Point is a hidden crab on a hidden painting. "Mermaid" is painted on a panel on the inside of a transom door that accesses the upper reaches of a tall, shallow closet I built in our kitchen.
 

The all too human mermaid is plunging toward two crabs in the corner of this painting amidst an ecosystem of fantastical flora and fauna.

When daughter Betsy and husband Brad acquired their own summer home, she requested a large painting on rough burlap to hang over their mantle.  He is more whimsical and loosely painted, suiting the coarse informal burlap.


We will visit some even more whimsical crabs and some not really crabs subsequently.

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