Cape Ann paintings and a lesson learned

On my first morning in Rockport, I rushed down to the harbour to paint. I have a favourite bench in a shady spot, a little bit away from the pedestrian traffic of Bearskin Neck. It’s fitting that my first painting in the town this year was of the visitor’s centre across the water. That was where I did my first boat sketch of Rockport all those years ago, and where my love of Cape Ann began.

It was a misty day when I painted this one, but the lack of light and shadow is offset by the multitude of shapes in the harbour. I can always find something to paint in Rockport.

I also spent a very hot morning painting at Halibut Point State Park, again in a shady spot across from a visitor’s centre. I love the description of the park on the Mass.gov link: a granite edge between the Atlantic Ocean and the mainland. It’s those granite edges of the former quarry that make painting there such a challenge, especially on a calm day when the rock reflects in the reservoir. Truly a place of quiet beauty when sometimes the only sound is of flapping gull wings in the still water.

I also returned to one of my favourite Gloucester painting spots: the view of Low Tide Yacht Club on Rocky Neck. Again, a favourite bench, a misty morning, the tide coming in, and no lack of shapes to paint. This one comes with a near-disaster and lesson learned: don’t take the tape off the painting until you are indoors. As you can imagine, that is not what I did. I won’t get into all the details, but the short story is that the tape came off, the wind grabbed the painting which was only lightly clipped to the plexi board, the painting landed upside down about an inch from the incoming tide and I managed to rescue it from floated away before the next gust of wind came along. This also included a fair bit of shrieking and scrambling down rocks. A story with a good ending but as I mentioned: a lesson learned.