A Sense of Place

There are some places that live with us. Perhaps we grew up in these special spaces; perhaps we live in them currently. They become a part of our psyche, like a silent tapestry that abides within . . .

For me, it is the oceans, rivers and lakes of the Northeast. I grew up on eastern Long Island and could walk to the beach from my house. My husband and I, when we were dating, spent most of our free time at the beach. Every summer we head for Cape Cod and our children, now grown, follow in the familiar path to the Cape.

Every autumn we head north to Maine and walk the coastline, drinking in the wide open spaces, the quicksilver skies. On my daily commute I pass along the CT River and witness amazing turns of light and of seasons.

These sketches and paintings are my attempts to capture those moments . . .

Encroaching Storm [watercolor and gouache]

Spindrift, West Dennis [watercolor and gouache]

Thunder Skies [watercolor and gouache]

“A place belongs forever to whoever claims it hardest, remembers it most obsessively, wrenches it from itself, shapes it, renders it, loves it so radically that he remakes it in his own image.” 

Joan Didion

Variations on a Theme

How does one envision an image? How does one interpret that vision?

I love the coastline and spent many summers on the beaches of Long Island, NY where I grew up. Not only summers but every season really and in all types of weather. Actually, Long Island is like one giant sandbar, as my Dad used to joke!

I'm not sure if it was the wide open spaces of the beaches or the vast skies or that thin scrim of a horizon line between ocean and sky that I loved the most. Or perhaps the dunes and the waves. In the midst of February, all these images and smells and sounds fill my head.  These two works seem to evoke some aspect of those memories, yet in very different ways and methods --

Coastal Haze

This is a fairly small work done on Wallis pumiced paper with acrylics and touches of pastel, done quickly with large mop brushes.

And this one was painted with oils on a thick heavy 200lbs. acrylic paper by Strathmore, which sold a few months ago at the Hartford Open Studio weekend.

Wetlands, Orleans MA

Different mediums, different approaches -- and yet both seem to capture a sense of the coast and surrounding wetlands. And I suppose that's the best one can hope for --

In summer, the song sings itself.

~William Carlos Williams

Prelude to Summer

Oceanic
6" x 8"

thoughts of warm waters . . . glinting shards of bright light . . . pools of aqua blue eddy round my feet, caressing my toes . . . bits of sand and shell sweep back and forth and sounds of gulls careen overhead . . .

Harbor View
5" x 7"

looking across the bay, boats bob in the harbor, their masts spike the pale blue sky like minarets. The smell of tar and wet rope reaches me where I stand in a state of mesmer . . .

Sand & Shore
8" x 10"

as the sun sets, I walk back across the sands, leaving behind dreams and sighs, the sound of waves lapping the shore . . . I carry with me the taste of salt on my lips . . .

I will return.