When 27-year-old Andrew Carr of Salem walked over to Rowand's fish market in Beverly this summer, he knew something was amiss.

The Rowand's fish — the big swordfish that has adorned an outside wall for years — was gone. He expressed his concern to owner Debbi Lewis, who led him out back.

"It was literally outside by the Dumpster," Carr said. "It was in two pieces up against a chain-link fence."

Unwilling to accept the fish's fate, Carr proposed a solution. The artist, a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, said he would bring it back to life.

He went over to Waters and Brown, and folks there helped match the original paint on the 17-foot aluminum swordfish. Then he took the giant fish back to his studio.

"I could have made it look more refined, but I really wanted to capture the spirit of the original," he said.

A few weeks ago, the swordfish went back up on the wall at Rowand's, which has been around since 1959.

"When I was little, I loved walking past it," Carr said of the fish. "I had no idea I'd one day be painting it."