Lone Cabbage Fish Camp
by AnnaJo Vahle
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Dimensions
36.000 x 24.000 x 0.750 inches
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Title
Lone Cabbage Fish Camp
Artist
AnnaJo Vahle
Medium
Painting - Acrylic On Canvas
Description
This is the real Florida. But though the long gray dock still offers a glimpse of real Florida, the 70-year-old Lone Cabbage is no longer a "real" fish camp.
In fact, many of the 160 or so such camps that used to dot the state's waterways in the 1960s are gone. Real fish camps have cheap cabins for rent. They have boat slips and bait-and-tackle shops. People find out about them through word of mouth.
I painted this from the backside of the Fish Camp. You can see a couple of airboats docked by the deck. Three turtles have hauled out on the nearby bank beneath the tree. One of them is The Florida soft-shell turtle, which is found primarily in the state of Florida. The two in front of it are painted turtles.
The lazy north-flowing St. John's River is on the other side of the buildings. That is where most of the airboats are. We have been here many times over the years to ride the airboats and see the alligators hanging out with the cows. I did a few paintings several years ago of the cows along the river. This time, I focussed on the actual Fish-camp.
In the past two decades, many of the old camps were forced to close their doors and sell out to developers because they couldn't compete for the tourist dollars. The Lone Cabbage has held on to much of its rustic charm, but it's not the camp it used to be.
Now, it's basically a restaurant and airboat rides. From the 1950s through the 1970s, serious anglers would come here from all parts of the country to stay in the cabins and fish for a couple of weeks, Inman said. There was no restaurant. All you could get was bait, cold beer and maybe a pickled egg, if you were lucky. There were boats for rent, boat slips and ramps. The bait-and-tackle shop sold minnows, shiners, worms and mussels.
"Back then, the St. Johns was so full of fish you could walk down on the bank, slap on top of the water and reach down and grab one," said Norman Early, who bought the Lone Cabbage in 1973.
But in the late 1970s things started changing. The anglers stopped renting the cabins and boats. They came in RVs and brought their own vessels. Then they started using more plastic worms and lures. The live bait died waiting to be bought. Early closed the cabins and shut down the bait-and-tackle shop.
By 1981, when the state's theme parks and other attractions were booming, Early couldn't pay his bills. To raise money, he started holding fish fries on Sundays. Then he leased the Lone Cabbage to a man named Charlie Jones, who brought in the airboat business and built the restaurant. Every change came with complaints from old-timers.
Still, by most accounts the Lone Cabbage remains rustic. Gator tail and frog legs are prominent on the menu.
This impressionistic acrylic painting is on a 24β by 36β stretched canvas.
5/29/22.. 3rd place tie in the "SUNSET PAINTING" Contest
Uploaded
September 10th, 2021
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Comments (88)
Gary F Richards
Congratulations on your Top Finish in the contest⦠YOUR WORK DOMINATED BY PURPLE! F/L
Bernadette Krupa
AnnaJo, this is absolutely gorgeous "Lone Cabbage Fish Camp" colors stunning! Congrats on multiple features - For the ART of It, Travel Art and Weekly FUN For ALL MEDIUMS!! L/F
Taphath Foose
Gorgeous work, AnnaJo!!! CONGRATULATIONS, your work is featured in "For the ART of It"!! I invite you to place it in the group's "Featured Image Archive" discussion thread and any other thread that is fitting!! π
Laurel Adams
CONGRATULATIONS, ANNAJO, You are the ππ»π₯ GAs CHOICE-CONTEST-THEME AWARD MEMBER RECIPIENT π€©ππ» in The ARTIST BUZzz -PURPLE-Theme-SHADOWS- Contest which featured 168 members, 484 entries and 1,274 votes! YAY!! So well deserved!..BRAVO!
Hanne Lore Koehler
Congratulations on your SUNSET PAINTING 3rd place contest win with this spectacular painting, AnnaJo! L/F
Hiroko Stumpf
Congratulations AnnaJo, on 3rd place tie in the "SUNSET PAINTING" Contest for this beautiful painting!
Sarah Irland
Congratulations, AnnaJo, on your Win in the Sunset Painting Contest for this beautiful painting! A well deserved win. Voted.