Envisioning Paul Cuffe

Can you imagine the life of Paul Cuffe?

Ray Shaw, a Westport resident and graphic artist, uses watercolor sketches to help visualize the past. His graphite and loose watercolor ‘storybook’ style challenges the viewer to use their imagination to interpret a given subject.

Paul was a crew member on two whaling ships when he was 14 and 16 years old. On a third whaling voyage in 1776, he and his shipmates were captured by the British Navy and imprisoned for three months.

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