My dear friend and personal massage therapist, Denise Pierce, came to me a few years ago and asked if I would be willing to capture on canvas one of her favorite memories. She then explained how she enjoyed, years earlier, sailing from Deltaville, Virginia aboard her friend’s DuFour 35’ sailboat Spray. They would often sail north, up the Chesapeake rounding Stingray Point Lighthouse, then past Windmill Point, into Fleets Bay and toward Dymer Creek. Just as you enter the creek you’ll see Grog Island to starboard. Behind the island there was a wonderful, protected anchorage perfect for an overnight “on the hook” as sailors would say, referring to an overnight at anchor. She recounted how they’d meet other sailing friends there aboard boats like Pelican and Buccaneer. The group would then take their dingies ashore and swim and picnic on the sandy beach for the afternoon. These times formed wonderful memories and I must add that I spent similar nights there aboard my Cape Dory 30’ sailboat Albatross. My painting “A Gathering at Grog Island” captures those past times for Denise.

Grog Island was a very low, sandy island covered with pine trees and subject to erosion from winter storms rolling down the bay. Now, some 20 years after, the island is but a memory. The island’s last pine fell into the Chesapeake a year or so ago. All that remains is a sandbar under the waters of Fleets Bay and wonderful memories.

The artwork is oil on stretched canvas measuring 11″ x 20″ – overall framed size 17″ x 26″ and was completed with a hand-lettered nameplate and House of Troy painting light.