Copyright 2009

Marriage has it’s privileges. Perhaps the greatest privilege of my marriage was the opportunity to get to know my wife’s parents, Bob and Audrey. Bob and Audrey are extremely generous beings and true lovers of life. They also live on the Chesapeake - which creates an additional privilege, as you can imagine.

It was not long before Bob introduced me to the Maryland Crab. Every visit included a trip to “Scooters” for pitchers of beer and several dozen “jumbos“ in Old Bay. I soon learned how to “pull the zipper’ and dive into one of nature’s exquisite delicacies. I was immediately a convert.

On trips to South Carolina, the kids would swim while I went “chicken necking.” The blue crab became my obsession. I came to love them for their beauty and their spirited nature. Nowhere will you find a creature so darned spirited! Velociraptors had nothing on these guys. Yet as you pull them up out of the water in your net, you can not help but marvel at their fabulous beauty. Thus their scientific name: Callinectes sapidus, from the Greek calli="beautiful", nectes="swimmer"). The gorgeous hues of blue and orange are remarkable and the intricacies of their structure is nothing short of extraordinary. My father used to say: “if you doubt there is a God, simply look at the ordered structure of a leaf.” I say: “ If you doubt God, study the blue crab.”

This painting was created as a gift to Bob. When he retired and settled into his Chesapeake home, I painted this 24’ by 48” depiction of his favorite creature. It was my first “wildlife” painting. I spent well over a month on the painting, and at the time, remarked that it was, by far, the most difficult painting I had ever done. But I was enthralled at the minute detail of the veining and colors and structure. Recreating a creature so beautiful and so intricate brought me to an appreciation of nature and God I had never experience before.

My intention was to create that moment so often encountered by crabbers. When the crab may have temporarily slipped his impisonment on the dock and his immenent escape became all too possible! Mano-a-mano wih the fiestiest creature from the deep - we have all experienced it , with various degrees of success.

It will always be one of my favorite paintings.

Bob and I now use a 1500’ trotline to run the crabs. I’ll be up there soon and expect to catch several dozen. Perhaps I was born to be a crabber.

I want to offer special thanks to a fabulous photographer in Troy, Il named Mike Eaves who provided the reference photograph I used. While intended initially as just a gift, Mike was good enough to let me market the work after it turned out so well.

Rob Dreyer