Acrylic on canvas

36" x 48"

SOLD

Stranded

There is no greater symbol of the harshness of life on the water than that of a boat ending its life, stranded or sunken. So many factors go into an owner’s decision to revive a boat or not. Sometimes the cost and the work involved are prohibitive; it is not an easy choice and I am sure that somewhere there is a grieving skipper who may have fished on that boat since he was a boy. This boat is the "Dimond City", built in the early 1950’s. I received a call on a Friday in December that she was stuck up on Sheep Island just down the river from Varnamtown. I made arrangements to get down on Wednesday of the next week. The weather was perfect on a beautiful December day but the image before me broke my heart. This beautiful aged wooden shrimp boat lay on her side in the water. She hadn't been there all that long and you could already see grey lines staining her hull, marks of the rising and falling tide. We circled her and I shot photos from the water and from Sheep Island. Jay Howard showed me the island and told stories of his youth camping there and how clear the sky was at night... “stars in the palm of your hands.” I was out again, at midday with Jim White. Jim and I talked about the sense of sadness we felt looking at her, abandoned and obviously deteriorating. We wondered together about her skipper and how he must have felt having to part with her.

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