Squid, 1970, part of a series of watercolors inspired by trees on Point Lookout Farm. Some resemble insects, such as Brandywine Spiders, 1970, which appeared in the MFA, Boston retrospective. In this sheet, the artist imagines a fallen branch as a giant underwater creature that starred in N.C Wyeth’s illustrations for The Mysterious Island, 1918, Jules Verne’s sequel to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, created in his studio nearby. Thinly painted bare trees in the background highlight the bleached limbs of a fallen branch that appears, incongruously, to be swimming, with an oval hollow transformed into an eye just where the branches fan out to resemble the lethal tentacles propelling the terrifying monster of the deep. - Dr. Elliot Bostwick Davis, Ph.D