Once upon a time, two lovely, talented, and hard-working artists met in a studio in New York City. They fell in love, he proposed to her at the Brandywine Museum, and they married. He paints portraits, she paints still-lifes, and their 9-year-old daughter Sadie makes elaborate structures out of cardboard boxes.

That, in a very small nutshell, is the story of Sarah Lamb and David Larned. It’s not always rainbows and puppies, however. Today, it’s lobsters and crabs—four-day-old lobsters and crabs, in fact, and they do not smell good.

“It’s starting to smell really bad in here,” Lamb says with a sigh. “I’m painting a crab and a lobster in a copper pot. It’s a commission for someone who’s going to hang it in their beach house. I paint everything from life.”

Read the entire article in the May/June 2020 issue.

Sarah Lamb

Magnolia

Oil
15” by 25”

“Magnolias are very challenging to paint. I love the structure of their bold blooms but you have to get them painted in one day. The white blossoms turn brown and collapse within 24 hours; their leaves last for a few days. So I try to get the magnolia blossom painted first. I love the glossiness of the leaves and their velvety brown underside. Martin Johnson Heade was my inspiration for tackling them.”

David Larned

Sadie

Oil
30 1/2” by 18”

“This is a portrait of our daughter when she was 4. It was the end of her ‘page boy’ haircut era. I am glad I captured her then as she is 9 now and looks totally different. It’s time to paint another one.”