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| Chesapeake Buyboat
The water and sky for this back-bay coastal scene was painted wet-on-wet watercolor (i.e., dripping wet watercolor paper and a paint-loaded brush). The boat and shore-side portion was painted after the paper dried. Hundreds of "buy boats" plied the Chesapeake Bay from the early part of the 20th century up through the late 1960s. Essentially they were bay-going trucks. A buyboat is a large vessel (usually 50' or more) that would visit working skipjack dredgers at the oyster beds, buy their catch (hence the name), and haul the oysters to the packing house. They might then take on a load of oysters, clams, or crabs, depending on the season, and haul them from, say Cambridge, up to Baltimore to restaurants and more northern packing houses. Although considerably fewer are in existence today, these boats still work in much the same way. Additionally, they carry seed oysters and plant them for the state, work in other fisheries, and sometimes take classes or tour groups out for hire. The original watercolor is in a private collection but limited edition prints and note cards are available. |
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