Last summer I was in Orleans, Cape Cod, for the American Women Artists exhibit at The Addison Gallery. We had some free time and as luck would have it, we came upon the Penniman House, perched on a hill off the main road in Eastham.
The Penniman House is a fine example of French second empire architecture. It was built on Cape Cod in 1868 by Captain Edward Penniman, who made his fortune through the Whaling Industry. He would travel across the world many times, hunting the massive "leviathans of the deep".
If you are in the Eastham/Orleans area this summer, stop by and see this once magnificent house. There are daily tours and nearby and up the hill is a lovely spit of land overlooking an inlet, where you can picnic, or paint! Read more about the home and the whaling industry here .
I will confess that this little painting almost drove me nuts. I don't often paint architecture, and the perspective involved in this one was rather daunting. I almost wiped this one down half a dozen times, but I kept at it and finally finished it.
This morning I was reading the bible and I opened up to Psalm 104. As I read it, I was enthralled by the beautiful descriptions of God's magnificence as demonstrated through the awesomeness of creation. I especially liked this verse: "There is the sea, vast and spacious,
teeming with creatures beyond number—
living things both large and small.
26 There the ships go to and fro,
and Leviathan, which you formed to frolic there.
I thought about that verse today as I considered the whaling Captain's house, and how the captain himself would smell the sea salt from the Atlantic Ocean and out of habit scan the white-capped horizon from the top of his hill in search of a whale's spout.
I hope you enjoyed reading about the Penniman House. Thanks for checking in!
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