Memory Layne Creative: Clamming on the Flats of Ipswich

Clamming the Flats
40x13 unframed watercolor
$400.00 ($15 shipping and handling)

And now, for something different. I recently spent a day on the clam flats of Ipswich and took nearly 100 photos of the diggers, the light changing throughout the day,

On a Saturday afternoon, two hours before low tide, I left in a tin boat and we ventured up a big river and then down a slight canal in the midst of the salt marshes.

As the tide went down, the sand appeared in the middle of the river and the clam flats were revealed. Slowly, and at different paces, the guys threw themselves over the edges of their boats and dragged their buckets and clam forks, which look like a bent short handled pitchfork. Their onion sacks by their sides in piles awaited them to empty their buckets as they got full.

For 5 hours, they didn't stop. I'm telling you, they didn't stop other than to take a swig of drink or to stretch their backs. They dug and dug and washed their buckets and put their bags of clams in the shallows of the water to keep them fresh.

At the end of the day, which due to the tide was dusk, the boat was driven across the channel, laden with bags of clams back to the landing where the truck was parked. Hooked it up on the trailer and drove in the dark down the road to the guy on the side of the road buying clams from the diggers.

Here are the first paintings I have come out with from the day. Many more to come...