Thomas Point Lighthouse, a Chesapeake Bay screwpile lighthouse, is the last remaining screwpile lighthouse in the Bay. Here it is painted by artist Susan Thau on a rounded piece of driftwood that was once half of the bottom of a bushell basket that the watermen used to store their crab catch. The staples that attached it to the rest of the basket remain. The technique used is a combination of woodburning and acrylic paint. Overall measurement is 6.75" long, by 14" wide at its widest point, by .6" thick, weighing approximately 1 lb., wire hanger on back. Signed, dated and sold by artist Susan Thau.
Susan began her career by specializing in portraits of the lighthouses that serve as beacons along our country's coastline. All of the lighthouses depicted are taken from extensive resource material on actual lighthouses, and the artist strives to make her paintings as accurate as possible. She has since expanded her work to decoys, shorebirds, waterfowl, fish, and anything else that strikes her fancy.
Susan Thau has been painting on driftwood gathered from the beaches near her Kent Island home since 1992. A completely self-taught artist, she has developed her own style which combines woodburning and painting with acrylics. Susan particularly enjoys working with driftwood because the great variety in the shape, size and surface texture of each piece of wood makes each painting a true one of a kind.
With a very few exceptions the wood has been harvested from the Chesapeake Bay. Some of the wood is from trees, some of it has obviously been shaped by man for a previous use, but all of it has been tenderized in the mixture of salt and fresh water of the Bay.
Tags: Chesapeake, lighthouse, screwpile
