Acrylic on canvas  

24" x 36"

SOLD

Varnamtown painting. #14 "September Morning". This is the Delta Belle culling their shrimp on a gray September morning in 2014. They were just off of Oak Island NC.

September Morning

One September morning in 2014, Jim and I were on the water seeking out the Varnamtown shrimpers. We had driven from Holden Beach almost up to Southport and found a couple of small one-man shrimp boats up from Calabash way but not really what we were looking for.  I made a quick call to Jackie Varnam, back at Honey’s, to see if she had word from any of the boats and knew their whereabouts.  She directed us back towards Oak Island. Sure enough, in the midst of our trip back up along the island, Jim’s sharp eyes saw the top of a boom.  

As we came up behind the “Delta Bell” we noticed that we were racing with a very large flock of seagulls towards the boat.  We were looking for photos and they were after breakfast.  A load of shrimp had just been dropped onto the sorting table and the crew was tossing the bycatch off the back of the boat.  A feeding frenzy was in full swing as the gulls fought with each other, and vied with the dolphins and the sharks for the fresh meat going over the side.

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