"Morning on Old Garden Path Road", 9x12, plein air, Rockport, Massachusetts, North Shore, Old Garden Path, Cape Ann, The Captain's House, Marmion Way, New England resorts

"Morning on Old Garden Path Road", 9x12, plein air

We just returned from a great trip to Massachusetts, where we attended our youngest son's graduation from the Harvard Kennedy School. Here I am demonstrating that I am one proud mama!

Although we were only there for a few short days, I couldn't travel to New England without my paints! The 5 days were filled with graduation dinners and various events, but I did find time one morning to venture out and put all my painting paraphernalia to use.

Whenever we travel to the Boston area, we stay at The Captain's House in Rockport, and this time was no exception. Our favorite B& B in the entire world, The Captain's House, (located on Marmion Way), has a backyard overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. The sunsets and sunrises are equally marvelous, and although we were too busy to enjoy the sunrise this year, we did find time to take numerous walks along the Old Garden Path om between our travels back and forth to Cambridge.

The Old Garden Path is Rockport's answer to Newport Rhode Island's Ocean Drive. In truth , I much prefer the simplicity of design of the "cottages" along the Old Garden Path to the huge mansions along Ocean Drive in Newport. They all have beautifully tended gardens and many have a feeling of yesteryear, when life was simpler and preparing a fisherman or sea captain's catch for supper was the highest priority of the day.

I wove my way down to the very end of Old Garden Path Road, where the little path turns up over the rocks to the point called the Headlands, which provides a grand view of the lovely little town of Rockport and Bearskin Neck. If you look carefully, you can see Motif#1 in the distance.

So I set up my easel and painted this little quickie of the seaside house at the end of the path, flanked by the headlands on  one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other side. What a lovely place to spend a few morning hours!

The weather was perfect and as usual, I could only wish I had more time to enjoy this lovely little seaside town on the North Shore!

I've done many paintings of this lovely area; if you have any interest in my Cape Ann paintings, please send me an email at maryannejacobsen@aol.com.

"Rocky Cove", 16x20 , oil on canvas, Cape Ann paintings, seascapes, Rockport, Massachusetts, Impressionism, rocks, Atlantic, Maryanne Jacobsen art

"Rocky Cove", 16x20 , oil on canvas

Sometimes I enjoy painting a scene so much that I can't wait to try it again! In this case, it was the scene overlooking Gap Cove in Rockport that I wanted to try again. I painted it en plein air when I was there a couple weeks ago, and so the scene was fresh in my mind.

Once again I decided to make the pretty house on Gap Head Road my focal point, and I decided to define the rocks a little more carefully than I had done the first time.

I will concede that painting en plein air is challenging because you must work very fast to capture the elements, and retain the original concept even as the light is changing. The benefit, however, is that the artist does not have a chance to mull over decisions regarding color mixing, value, composition- anything! You either nail it or you don't! That is why plein air work can either look incredibly fresh and spontaneous, or else be a disaster!

In the case of the painting that I did that day, I was very happy with it, so I thought it would be fun to try a bigger version. What I noticed was that I found myself overthinking decisions that I had made instantaneously the first time I'd painted the scene. I found myself playing around with the greenery in the foreground to the extent that it made the foliage seem more strained and conspicuous than the first time I'd painted it. I also had too many color choices, whereby I had substantially  limited my palette when I'd painted it that day on location.

In short, I have slowly but surely become an avid proponent of plein air painting, as a result of understanding its benefits. It has taken me 6 years to get comfortable with painting on location, and I will admit that once you get there, painting in the studio is always a little bit of a disappointment. Without the sound of the seagulls screeching in the background, and the waves lapping the rocks, the music that I normally play while painting didn't quite do it for me any more. Without the warm sun playing over my shoulders and the crisp blue sky above me, the mixture of light sources in the studio become almost confusing.

In short, although I was somewhat happy with this painting, I know the first painting was better even though it only took me one hour and this one took me 5 hours. I can't wait until the heat of this Florida summer breaks somewhat, so I can get back outdoors and paint another tiny piece of  God's glorious creation. Thanks for reading.