Jumping Off the Beach St Bridge

High Tide Beach Street Bridge

One of the most popular activities of summer in Green Harbor involves an old concrete bridge, a high tide and enough gumption to submit to a cold, salty, and swift current.     I have no idea what age is typically "old enough" to take the plunge at the Beach St Bridge.   I do know that I've seen smallish tykes standing there, as if frozen, deciding if this is the day they will have come of age.  I have seen adults similarly frozen, standing on the conduit pipe deciding if this item on their bucket list is worth it!

In the painting, the span of water is wide is because the scene is literally at sea level - from a kayak.   No I'm not painting from within the kayak but from a photo I took.   This vantage has a view all the way through to the Cut River and marsh on the inlet side.   The dark bobbing heads are shaded by the bridge.  Often there will be a Mom or Dad standing off to the side taking a photo of the moment of truth, when perhaps they are probably there to supervise.  At least that would have been my story to my kids.

Beach Shelter in Winter

Beach Shelter in Winter - In Progress

This is the view from my childhood home, done from a photo taken by my niece just last week during a snowstorm.   Thank you Stefanie!  The shelters today look no different than they did fifty years ago, and I'm thinking that anyone who walks, runs or rides along Day Boulevard should recognize the shape of the roofline over the benches.  During the summer, they provide nice shade and during the winter, they provide material for a nice painting.

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Beach Shelter in Winter

Yacht Clubs from Kelly's Landing

Yacht Clubs from Kelly's Landing

There was a strong line of storm cells between the South Shore and Boston on this morning.    I would be driving straight into it.  The weather forecaster assured viewers that the weather would clear by 8AM, but it didn't.    The clouds and mist lingered as I set up along Day Boulevard in South Boston, MA.  This spot was always known as Kelly's Landing, known for its seafood and ice cream - back when ice cream cones were only 15 cents each. :)

The rain had soaked everything making surfaces look darker and shiny.   The old cedar shakes on the yacht club looked even darker against the cloudy skies.  Truthfully, this was an unpleasant paint out and the painting didn't turn out too good either.   As I've said before though, a bad day plein air painting beats a good day at the office - anyday!


Carson Beach in July

Carson Beach in July - Stage One

Triple H's but it was still early and bearable when I pulled into the parking lot along Day Boulevard at the Carson Beach.  The tide was dead low and either the sand has naturally built up over the years or it has been manually supplemented. Maybe I have forgotten what the beach was like at low tide!    I know that the beach grasses I saw on this day weren't there forty years ago - that's a very nice touch.   





Carson Beach in July - Stage Two

Carson Beach in July

I set up along the gray boardwalk facing Dorchester Heights and the monument.   The bathhouses were to my left, nice old brick buildings with lots of character.   More and more people arrived and settled in all around me.   I chose which people to include and of course, which of the many colorful umbrellas should be painted in.  A day at the beach...


Everson Island from Dyke Road

The Green Harbor River separates Green Harbor from Brant Rock in the southern section of Marshfield.   Dyke Road connects the two sub-villages of Marshfield just beyond the Green Harbor Marina.  If you look upriver, you can see Everson Island in the middle.



Everson Island- Stage One

We drive by this stretch often and it is always a scenic spot, especially at sunset.  The land in the middle of the river is called Everson Island, named after a soldier from Marshfield who served in the Civil War.  According to a memoir I found online, Erastus Everson was granted ownership of the island as a reward for his Civil War service.  He, and subsequently his family members used their island paradise as a summer camp. 

<History lovers might enjoy the following (somewhat lengthy but personal and nostalgic) description of Everson Island back in the early 1900's.>
http://mysite.verizon.net/vze3nm2c/greenharborimages/id10.html



Everson Island - Stage Two

It was late morning in July when I decided to paint this pretty scene that I admire so often.  Although the scene looks serene and picturesque, in reality there were commercial trucks and tow boat trailers rumbling by almost constantly.   Maybe out on the island there was a degree of quiet and solitude?    I stood on the river side of the guardrail and it took some unorthodox adjusting of the gear to get set up to paint.  



Everson Island - Stage Three

I sight sized the scene standing quite close to the canvas.   (I didn't have much room to step back.)  The summery sky was bright with high clouds, and that meant that the water was not reflecting clear blue, but a grayed down indigo.   The river water just below where I stood was quite green, probably from the sandy bottom.

I'll still probably make some adjustments to this one, but I like that it captures the color of the sky and water.   I'll probably tone down the island grasses as they look too light.     Does anyone have any other suggestions for me?



 

 

Lucky Four Leaf Clover

Who doesn't like a four leaf clover and what it stands for?    The last time I may have had a real one in my hand was probably as a grade school child.   That was an age when there actually was time to sit around in a grassy spot and just comb through the soft clover - no place to be and no concerns about efficient use of time.  

I painted a four leaf clover on a penny earlier this year and it has since sold up at the South Street Gallery in Hingham.   I painted this four leaf (especially lucky) clover image on a new mailbox for my son's first home.     I painted it with love and warm wishes of good luck.....

Castle Island Just Before Sunset

This scene was painted from a photograph that I took while aboard the Hingham-to-Boston Ferry.    The ferry passes by several Boston Harbor Islands and although this is Castle "Island", that is a misnomer today because it has been connected by land for a couple of centuries.  The fortress shown is Fort Independence which is located at the entrance to the Boston Inner Harbor.   A large fishing pier can be seen in the foreground as well as a towering obelisk honoring shipbuilder Donald McKay and the fast and beautiful clipper ships that he had designed and constructed in Boston back in the late 1800's.



Castle Island Evening

A trip to Castle Island for a hot dog at Sullivan's and a walk around the fort is an institution known well by most Bostonians.  It is not unusual to see a crowd on any day of the week and among them are tourists, school busses of children on field trips, lunching blue collar and white collar workers enjoying the cool sea breeze just adjacent to Boston Harbor.  With Logan International Airport just on the other side of the channel, a constant flow of jets roar overhead, thus a jet is a must for this painting.
The photo reference was nice enough because of the low angled light and long shadows, but as is often the case when painting from a photo, the painting is just nicer.     The light has a warm feel to it that the photo's light doesn't.   I didn't fuss over the people on the pier and walking.   I just placed dots of color that might suggest their clothing on this beautiful summer evening.


"M" Street Beach

It's August and there is plenty of mild weather still to come in summer and, of course, all of the autumn to look forward to.  I find myself thinking however about the later sunrises and earlier sunsets.   Have I been taking advantage of the early sun for painting?  Not enough.

M Street Beach Stage 1

I decided to get up and out early so that I could paint in Boston prior to making my regular visit to my aunt.    I parked on Day Boulevard near "O" Street and crossed over to a grassy spot just before the South Boston Yacht Club.   I set up facing west, aligned with the shoreline.  The L Street Bathhouses were straight ahead of me and the tall, white handball court was visible beyond the M Street beach fence.   



M Street Beach - Stage 2

It was only 7:30 AM when I set up, another warm and humid day.   The sun was behind me and it was illuminating the sand and lighting up the trees along the boulevard.   It was a very warm light.   I commenced with a warm sand color made from terra cotta, naples yellow and white.   Toward the waterline the sand was darker and greener.   The horizon line, the distant shore of Columbia Point and Carson Beach was mostly green, but when I held up the loaded brush, I had to make it much bluer.   This far treeline color called for cool combination of viridian green, alizarin crimson and lemon yellow, contrasted with ultramarine for shadows.

M Street Beach

I liked the idea of adding the metal fence that curved away from where I was standing.   It was a blue-green color, but it was effectively reflecting the blue sky overhead at the top.   It formed a cool - warm contrast against the warm sand as well as a dynamic lead in to the painting.  



This canvas is 9 x 12 so for the small details, I waited until I got back to the studio for my small brushwork.   I added just a couple of people to it because in fact there were no people on the beach, but usually there is!   As always comments and suggestions welcome.

Painting at Castle Island

It is another warmer than usual day.  My Aunt Theresa is expecting me today, and what that usually means is lunch and errands.   Since she has been using a walker, we are little more limited in our adventures.   I decide to pack up my painting gear and paint for a couple of hours in Boston before my visit.
I drove straight to Castle Island hoping that the predicted high winds would not be a problem.   I figured that the fort has so many angular walls that I would be able to find a warm spot that was also sheltered from the wind.    I was thinking that perhaps Sullivan's would be opening for the season soon, but I was relying on a vague memory of a handwritten piece of paper that would be taped up on the concession's front door each winter.   "See you in the Spring," followed by the date - always sometime in March.

I parked in the front row and stacked my gear onto a luggage cart.   I didn't have to walk very far to realize I would have to be on the upper sidewalk to find a windfree spot.  There are five major sides to Fort Independence, and I set up facing southeast.    Here is a photo of my vantage point and my set up.

Just beyond the wall in my painting a major runway for Logan International Airport juts out into Boston Harbor.  Every two or three minutes a jet would descend gradually and land at Logan, out of sight from where I was located.   I added a nice white jumbo jet just above the skyline of densely populated Winthrop with its assorted waterfront houses.  Several people stopped to watch the planes from the benches on this sunny sheltered side.   The grass slopes down from the upper sidewalk down to the outer perimeter sidewalk of Castle Island.   In case you haven't seen any of the Boston Harbor Island forts, and were wondering, that is grass on top of the fort.

I am sort of perplexed about the blue colors of the sky and water.   As I stood there, the light blue color of my painted sky was exactly the same as the real sky.   Now, in looking at this photo, the canvas is very light blue, yet the "real" sky in the photo is deep blue.  Similar issue with the water.   I know that photos make things bluer, but it is interesting that it seems to only make distant things bluer - not the blues on my canvas.  Maybe someone has some information they can share on this?

Although there was a steady stream of walkers, few stopped to talk or ask questions.  One woman was interested in having her dog painted.   I haven't ever done a pet portrait, nor am I particularly interested in doing one, but I gave her a card anyway.   She was a very cute dog.  It was also very nice to see a friend from back in the 80's whom I had not seen in decades.    This demonstrates that you cannot accurately depict Castle Island unless you put in the walkers.   That's what is missing from this painting right now; I'll let it dry a bit and then insert the walkers in the sweet spot where the path turns left around the corner.

Watching the Planes at Castle Island

Gate of Heaven Church

By 1890, Gate of Heaven Parish in South Boston, Massachusetts was well established. Even though the City Point area was growing more slowly than the westerly parish of the peninsula, by 1890 the congregation at Gate of Heaven numbered about 10,000 with about 600 girls registered in the academy and parochial school. The existing church was insufficient for the needs of so large a parish. In order to get ample room for a new church, it was necessary for the parish to buy several lots adjoining the church's land holdings at that time.  A hill that stood on this land was removed, and the grounds were graded. The cornerstone of today's church was laid in the fall of 1896 by His Grace, Archbishop Williams, with about one hundred clergymen assisting at the ceremony.

The designs furnished by P.W. Ford, the Boston Architect provided a building worthy of a cathedral. During construction, it was necessary to build St. Eulalia’s Chapel (today's St. Brigid Church), which was opened for services on May 6th, 1900 for the people of the City Point,  The following month the new lower Gate of Heaven church was finished, and the first services were held there June 17th, 1900.

With the lower church occupied, the work of completing the upper church was begun. The stained glass windows were designed by N.H.J. Weslake, Esq. of London, whose work, “The History of Design in Painted Glass” is recognized as an authority on the subject. The work of completing the church progressed steadily, and the upper church was ready for services and dedicated by His Eminence, Cardinal O’Connell, on May 12th, 1912.

The church was constructed in the Gothic style of architecture, of buff Roman brick, with brownstone trimmings. It has a frontage on East Fourth Street of 106 feet and depth of 184 feet. The interior itself is magnificent in its arrangement of fittings – the woodwork of oak, alters of sandstone and marble, the blue and gold tinted walls, the beautiful organ and magnificent stations, made it one of the most elaborate houses of worship in or about Boston. The Gate of Heaven Church is recognized by leading authorities as one of the most beautiful churches in the Archdiocese of Boston.

There really is no better way to become familiar with all the beauty and intricacies of such a majestic example of architecture than to paint it. Seeing my childhood church as an adult - an adult with an artist's eye - resulted in a strong desire to capture how striking it is.   As an adult, typically upon returning to those familiar places frequented as a child, the reaction is, "I remember it being so much bigger!"   Gate of Heaven Church is one of the few places that seems just as enormous and impressive today as it did all those years ago.   I remember feeling so small as my eight year old eyes looked up to see the chandelier lights that made my mother's diamond ring sparkle as in no other place.  

This week, the Gate of Heaven convent which stands on the same block, not 10 feet away from the church, is being torn down.   The Gate of Heaven rectory has already been torn down.  Being 30 miles removed, I'm not sure what the whole plan is for these properties, but it startled me into creating this painting, one I've been thinking about starting for a while.  This is not complete so comments are welcome.  Also, look for a religious symbol somewhere on the canvas...