A Woodcut Painting of a Trawler and Marine Researchers at the Landing

"Marsh Creek Trawler"
Woodcut hand rubbed painting
on Oriental mulberry paper
Image size: 6" x 8"
Paper size: 9.5" x 11.5"
Price: $125.00

I hand cut this picture of a shrimp trawler in a marsh creek into a block of wood, then inked and transferred the painting by rubbing it onto thin oriental mulberry paper. The resulting woodcut print is a reverse of the design on the original woodcut block.
More of my trawler paintings may be seen by clicking this Link.


As I sketched and took reference pictures at the Robert Ashley Boat Landing in the fishing village of McClellanville, I enjoyed talking to researcher workers with the US Dept. of Fish and Wildlife Sea Turtle Project and the SC Dept. of Natural Resources Mink Restoration Project. Both projects are finding populations on the rebound this year. What great news.


Here is a picture of native wild minks on a mat of sea grass and driftwood. Minks live in the marshes of the Lowcountry where they build nests on floating mats of dead sea grass. They are highly susceptible to environmental toxins and have been a "species of concern" due to their dwindling numbers in the northern coastal areas of SC.
South Carolina Dept. of Natural Resources researchers are monitoring the newly reintroduced population of wild minks in the Cape Romaine National Wildlife Refuge.

Pictured (l to r) are Clemson Grad student Michael Waller and tech Will Chaplin back at the landing after a day doing mink surveys.




They ask boaters in the CRNW Refuge to not disturb their survey equipment that has the pictured label attached.





US Fish and Wildlife Dept. BioTech Allan Dawson (center), Rebecca Gallagher (left), and Jerry Tupacz secure their boat after a day on Cape Island working on the USF&D Sea Turtle Project. They report they're finding more sea turtle nests this year (2008) than last year. If nests continue to be found at the present rate, there may be over 1,000 documented nests in 2008 compared to 800 nests found in 2007.



It was a busy day of painting trawlers and working on Jeremy Creek in the historic fishing village of McClellanville SC.

3 comments:

Daniel Bates said...

I love the painting and you even taught a McClellanville local like me something about the minks that I did not know. Thanks for the great art and the wildlife lesson. Daniel Bates - MyMcClellanville.net

Katherine Muschick Schneider said...

Hi Daniel,
Thanks for your kind remarks. I too was surprised to learn about the minks. I've lived and played in the marshes around here for most of my life and haven't seen or heard about minks before this. I hope the newly reintroduced minks do well and make a strong comeback in the Cape Romaine Refuge.

I visited your blog and enjoyed reading about your family's houseboat trip in the Cape Romaine Wildlife Refuge fishing, shelling,and visiting with wild dolphins.

Thanks for stopping by the blog.

Katherine Muschick Schneider said...

Recent news from the Cape Romaine Wildlife Refuge is that mink and coyote populations in the Bull's Bay area have made a strong comeback.

However, turtle populations have begun to decline lately. It's not yet known if increases in minks and coyotes in the refuge is a factor in the decline of the number of turtles...

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