Recently I was visiting Carters Creek just off the Rappahannock River in the Northern Neck of Virginia. It was a beautiful late summer day perfect for exploring the area and home to the famed Tides Inn Resort. The shoreline is adorned with lovely homes, private vessels as well as working boats.

In “Ladies in Waiting” we see two classic Chesapeake Deadrises- locally built, wooden boats that were designed specifically for fishing in the nearby bay and rivers. Nicole is rigged for crab potting – catching our delicious Atlantic blue crab while Redeemer is set up for oyster dredging. We see fewer and fewer of these wooden vessels as they are being replaced with modern fiberglass boats. To my eye there is a classic beauty to these older “ladies” that the newer boats cannot match. The odd name “deadrise” is a reference to the angle of the hull planking off “dead flat”. These boats are resting in anticipation of their next days of labor.

JMB Fall, 2020

Oil on art pane: 8” x 10” overall framed size: 15” x 17” $2,200 SOLD

Beautifully framed with a hand-lettered nameplate and House of Troy picture light.