Marcia Thomas House

Identifying new painting locations is often on my mind and for some reason I equate new, exciting locations with driving somewhere "else" rather than someplace closeby.   I have to remind myself that it is not how far I go, but looking closely at what is right in front of me.   There is a particular antique cape-style house with a historical marker that I drive my daily.   I think I had become blind to this gem so I finally set out to capture it on canvas.

I pulled into the gravel driveway and set up facing east so that the sun was over my right shoulder.   There is a lot of history behind this fascinating house.   It actually was moved in 1997 from Ocean Street in Marshfield to this current location, on Webster Street, adjacent to the Winslow House.  It is now the headquarters of the Marshfield Historical Society, and appropriatedly so since it was originally the home of Marcia Thomas (B:1800) who is considered to be Marshfield's first historian.   For more on the Marcia Thomas House, I suggest visiting the link.



As I began painting, it got cloudier and colder.   I tried to pick up the pace, concentrating on the structural lines of the house and color scheme, figuring I could  always work the grasses, trees and shrubs later in a warm studio.   Despite the grayness of the day, it was still very bright.   My challenge was how dark to paint the front of the house, which was a northeast facing plane, technically a "shaded" plane.   It still looked very light in value.    I painted it as accurately as I could, then got a photo image.   With the front house plane as a good data point, I would be able to then use the photo in a relative manner.

Toward the end of my paint out, I was pleased to meet Tim Davidson, President of the Marshfield Historical Society.   At first when he stopped, I thought it may have been because I wasn't allowed to be there.   Quite the opposite!   Mr. Davidson was most gracious and told me that my interest in this historic site was welcome.   He noted that the Marshfield Historical Society is coming up on their 100th anniversary, having been established in 1913.  Many commemorative events are now in the planning stages for 2013.



Marcia Thomas House

We even discussed hatching a plan to include an art event or contest sometime during the anniversary year.  I would be happy to participate and know many other artists who would as well.

I hope to visit and paint two other sites managed by the Historical Society, the old Winslow Schoolhouse and the Winslow Blacksmith Shop in the near future.  For now, here is the "nearly final" product.