Saturday, May 1, 2010

Shedder's Waltz(SOLD)

 I did something a little different here, my wee mouton. I first coated the canvas with black acrylic paint, 2 coats. I wanted to paint this instead of drawing and then coloring, which is my usual M.O.  It got me here faster and in a more loose manner.
 When I first moved to the outer banks I did not know what crab shedders were. In an elaborate process, females blue crabs are set out in pans of circulating brackish water. At an appropriate time in May, a male crab is introduced to the pan. The females sense the male and assume its time to molt. The female willingly sheds her hard crusty exoskeleton with the assumption mating will ensue (ensue?). The moment she has molted she is placed on ice and awaits her true fate. Fried Softshells. Crab shedding is what its called. If the crabs are not put on ice all but immediately, they become paper shells and then leatherbacks and then back to hard shell crabs.
Oil on canvas 16"X20"
This painting is sold.

3 comments:

martinealison said...

Belle progression que cette toile...
Amitiés.

Autumn Leaves said...

This painting is beautiful, Rick.

Lisa Riehl said...

Nice! It's fun to paint on black, isn't it? I keep on moving between black and red, and I want to try deep purple too (esp for green forest scenes). The different base colours give such different feels to each painting. I love your colours in this piece...

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