Acrylic on wood panel, 29 x 48 inches, 2020, Private collection, Westport, CT

I photographed this image during a September 2020 trip to Saint Simons Island, Georgia. Nearby Darien, GA is a small shrimping port and a week before the trip, a major storm had blown through the area and severely damaged the Darien shrimping docks. The damaged docks, weather beaten boat and immense tidal marsh add a melancholy counterpoint to the Kodachrome “happy” sky. There are only three things altered from the original photograph. I changed the boat trim color from a light blue to red, backdated the shrimp boat by removing modern electronics and antennas and renamed the boat.

Acrylic on Gessobord, 36 x 24 Inches, 2023

I believe this is the open water just off of New London Connecticut. Taken from the Block Island to New London ferry just as the sun was setting. The hot summer day had a created a gentle haze over the water.

Acrylic on wood panel, 48 x 20 inches, 2021

From a photo taken at the same location as “Old Trap Floats”, a simple composition of crab trap floats weathering on the side of a store on Smith Island in the Chesapeake Bay.

Acrylic on wood panel, 48 x 20 inches, 2019, Private Collection

Although it is bright and cheery, this image was taken on Smith Island in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay on the now closed general store and restaurant. Life on Smith Island becomes harder each year as the bounty of crab and oysters continues to dwindle while at the same time the island is slipping back into the water due to subsidence and rising water levels. I did cheat and replace a few less interesting floats with some more colorful ones.

Acrylic on Gessobord, 18 x 24 inches, 2022, Private collection, Virginia

One of my favorite pictures of old boats at pier side, I believe this was in Gloucester, Massachusetts. I loved the drips of paint on the faded bow and the way the sunlight reflected off the water onto the lower side of the boat. The faded, worn hull was contrasted by the bright blue sky reflected in the water. The multiple reflections of the waterline numbers made a great detail.

Acrylic on panel, 2022, 24 x 36 inches, Private collection, Connecticut.

In this painting, I found a stack of weathered and forlorn double and triple pulley block and tackle with some rope helping to hold the pile together. The scene is from Eastport, Maryland, a famous part of Annapolis, Maryland marine landscape. It is near noon with the summer sun beating directly overhead to provide the high contrast with deep shadows, The wood had a sheen from polished by the years of wear.

Acrylic on panel, 2019, 18 x 24 inches, Private Collection, Atlanta.

I renamed and backdated the oyster buy boat, “J Roberts Bateman” for the customer as well as the buildings of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum to create a large oyster house scene right after a late afternoon rain storm.

Acrylic on Panel, 24.25 x 48.25 inches, 2018, Private Collection, Washington, DC

Best in Show, Art League Gallery at Torpedo Factory, Alexandria, VA. March 2019 open show.

This seems to be the last trawler operating out of this marina at the southwestern tip of Chincoteague Island, Virginia, USA. It has seen better days, but that is what gives this vessel charm. The sunset is not exaggerated one bit. I did swap a small sailboat with a work boat to balance out the painting. I also deleted part of the pier in the background.

Despite a decent breeze, there were mosquitos everywhere, I had to run from shot-to-shot to keep from being eaten alive.

Acrylic on Panel, 2020, 30 X 29.25 inches

Often I will take a photo knowing some day, it will be part of a larger piece. In this case, it was a photo of the well weathered port lamp at the 2014 tall ship gathering in Baltimore Maryland. Almost two years later I had the idea, I just needed a picture of a cat with the right attitude and at the right angle. Getting the picture took until the beginning of the COVID 19 quarantine in 2020. I added a third photo of some distant thunderheads near sunset.

The painting tells the story of ship’s cats that roamed the vessel mostly at night to keep rats and mice at bay. This cat on a vessel in port is watching the sunset and preparing for the night’s hunt. The ship and cat have both seen better days, the cat is lean, slightly scarred and a good hunter. Lucky is the sailor on a cold winter night whom the cat picks to sleep with after the hunt.

Acrylic on Panel, 12” x 48”, 2018, Private Collection, Virginia.

This is a chilly Fall day scene at the docks of the Inn at Perry Cabin in St. Michaels, Maryland. St Michaels is on the Eastern Shore of the Delaware, Maryland, Virginia peninsula. The fog was just lifting on a calm, cloudless day. The Inn has a small collection of beautiful boats with blue hulls.