The first "Guy Holding Fish" painting appeared late in the 2006 season at a small gallery. To David Witbeck’s surprise, it sold quickly, along with seven more in the following weeks. 
 

“In 2007, another gallery picked up the series. That year, I sold seventy-four fishermen between the two galleries. Add in a few more galleries, and I crossed eighty in a single season.”

That kind of momentum gave him permission to stop marketing himself as a freelance photographer and focus entirely on painting.

“At the time, I figured I’d do maybe a hundred of them before I got bored and moved on. That was the plan,” shares Witbeck. “Nearly twenty years and over six hundred fishermen, lobstermen, and clamdiggers later—I still enjoy it. But I feel a shift coming.”

So what’s next?

“I don't know exactly. Maybe woodblock prints. Maybe more works on paper. Maybe I’ll pick up the series of Nereids—my sea goddesses in the nude—that I left behind a few years ago,” he says.

Or maybe he’ll explore a simpler, more abstract version of Guy Holding Fish. A return to form, literally.

“One experiment I tried this year was a stripped-down palette: red, yellow, green, and blue. I used it for a series of small pot-buoy and lobsterboat panel paintings,” Witbeck says, referring to his 2025 show. “It felt good to loosen up again, to chase shape and rhythm more than storytelling.”

Witbeck has always been more interested in drawing and design than in soft light or pretty skies. 

“Perhaps the next move is a return to what originally drew me in: big shapes. Clean lines. Less narrative. More play,” says Witbeck.

We’ll see what happens.

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