PAUL ARSENAULT MUSEUM SHOWS: Coastal Trade
​BOUNTY, BOOTY, AND BOATS OF THE GULF AND GLADES FROM NAPLES TO KEY WEST
FEATURING PAINTINGS AND ARTIFACTS BY PAUL ARSENAULT

COASTAL TRADE includes not only paintings that represent the pioneer days of southwest Florida’s maritime trading networks,
but folk art, posters, and artifacts that relate to this heritage. Arsenault’s paintings include fish houses in Naples and Isles of Capri,
markets and general stores in Key West, clam canneries on Marco Island, and trading posts in the Everglades that were used by pioneers
and Seminole Indians. Vessels that plied the Gulf catching fish, making deliveries, and transferring merchandise and passengers,
such as the “Ina” and the “Bertie Lee” are represented in the exhibit, as is the replica of a pirate ship based in Key West that
was the floating home office of treasure salvor Mel Fisher in the 1970s. There are also images of homesteads of some of the early growers
and notorious characters whose produce was sailed, poled, or rowed to market from deep in the Everglades. That Arsenault had
​the opportunity to meet some of the remarkable old-timers with deep roots in this area makes the exhibit particularly interesting.