Gallery at Robbie's Marina at Mile Marker 77.5
|
| | Name: | LobsterTrapArt | | About Us: | Nadine is originally from Hazleton, Pennsylvania and Glenn is a South Forida native born in Ft. Lauderdale.
We lived and worked in South Florida at our company “Glenn’s Greenery”, which was started by Glenn in 1976.
Nadine was the wholesale nursery manager and grower of the 16 acre facility.
The company grew quality indoor plants that were then leased to major corporations in the South Florida area. We designed and maintained the plants on a yearly contract to hotels, restaurants, office buildings, and other indoor facilities.
We were married in 1999 the year we sold our company after 23 successful years. After selling “Glenn’s Greenery”, we retired and moved to Lower Matecumbe Key, just South of Islamorada in the fabulous Florida Keys. We avidly pursued our love of fishing and everything “Keysey”.
In early 2002 we decided to take an art course at our local community college as a hobby. Since we had never painted before it was quite challenging. After a semester of art lessons, we both stuck to painting and seemed to have a “knack” for it. We have since developed our own distinct style.
Glenn during this time made some frames from old lobster traps and we gave them as gifts to our family and friends. With the encouragement of mainly our family, who told us “you could sell those”, we decided to do our first art show in January of 2003.
Armed with a half a dozen paintings, about 40 lobster trap frames, (most of which were empty), and some photos we took, we did “Art Under the Oaks” in Tavernier which was very successful. The rest they say is “history”. Since then we have done over 60 art shows and show our work in 5 galleries from Key West to Key Largo. We have shipped our work all over the United States and the world; including Australia, Italy, France, Scotland, England and Hawaii.
We have painted hundreds of original works and constructed over 10,000 hand built lobster trap frames all since 2003. Our newest addition is our website, www.lobstertrapart.com, which features our newest original works, popular prints of our original paintings, empty lobster trap frames, and our newest fine art section. Also included on our site is our upcoming shows.
Come by and see us at one of our events. Give us a call if you need a custom lobster trap frame, or would like us to paint something special just for you!
We love what we do and feel lucky to live in such a beautiful part of the world which is both inspiring and gives us such wonderful scenes and subjects to paint. We hope you enjoy our work as much as we enjoy creating it.
OUR FRAMES are made from real lobster trap wood that was used to harvest lobsters here in the Keys.
After 5 or so seasons of using these traps, the hardware that holds them together starts to rust, and the lobstermen can no longer use them. We take these older traps, break them down and use the weathered wood to make the frames you see here. We take great care to keep the staples, nails, and other fasteners in the wood to keep it looking the same as when used as a working trap.
The black rope we sometimes add on the frames is the actual pull rope that is tied to the bouys you see in the waters thoughout the keys. The rope with the rings at each end is what is tied to the trap itself and is called the “bridle”.
All the barnacles, rust, crustaceans, and character on the wood is natural. Sometimes we add shells for more decoration, but even these shells are collected by us and are native to the Florida Keys waters. On some of the larger frames we add the actual “lobster tag” that is required by the State of Florida to be on each trap that is placed in the water.
Since we can make more frames from a trap than we can get the tags, we can only put these on the larger ones we make. Every season each trap must have a new tag. And every year these tags are a different color.The season years are placed on the tags as well as the lobsterman's number and the number of the trap certificate.
lobster tag green
After carefully constructing the frames, we varnish or white-wash them to make them suitable for use to complement any piece of artwork. And as many people have said they are themselves a unique piece of art. Because of the unusual aging process of the wood, no two frames are the same. We then place some of our original paintings, photos, or prints in them.
The frames can also be purchases empty so you can place your own artwork or photos in them. If our standard sizes do not fit your needs, we can make a custom frame just for you. Give us a call or email us.
Nadine and Glenn
| | Business Type: | Specialty | | Street Address: | 82200 Overseas Hwy Islamorda | | Mile Marker: | 82 | | Sales Person: | Nadine & Glenn | | Phone: | 305 393 6664 | | Business Hours: | Please Call | | Web Address: | http://www.lobstertrapart.com/ | | Member ID: | 387378 | | Status: | Active |
|
|
