Rockport, Mass. - House and Porch

"From the Yard at Mum's House - Rockport, Mass." (12"X16", Oil on Canvas, $400)

This small painting was done after taking a plein-air painting course offered by the North Shore Arts Association, which I'm a member of. It shows my mother's house (which used to be my grandmother's house, where I grew up - until third grade) from under the cherry tree in the back yard. It shows the red-painted porch floor and basement bulkhead; the raw cedar boards above (just put in last summer); the long bench in the shade flanked by the wrought-iron chair and the white wicker chairs in the sun; and of course the big red Weber domed standing grill in the background that has seen so many cookouts over the last couple of decades. The gate at the mouth of the driveway keeps the dogs in and random drivers, looking for free beach parking in the summer, out. The upstairs porch that serves the 'mother-in-law apartment' upstairs can be seen, with its white cut-paper shade and flower boxes that my mother keeps filled with white pansies.

The workporch on the above left is where my old grandmother had her loom, her supplies for making incised-paper lampshades, her sewing machine and fabrics, her paints, her printing patterns, and whatever else she may have been working at any one time. Always able to turn her hand to any project - and make a quick few dollars from the result - she had an admirable work ethic and a lot of talent to back it up. She made tea cozys that she sold through an ad that she placed in the back of Yankee magazine. She provided the Wenham Tearoom with lemon bundt cakes that she would make by the dozen and load in to her '69 white mustang (along with me) for delivery. I miss her a lot since she died at the age of 94 a few years ago. I'm glad, though, that my mother kept the house, lives there now and that it will stay in the family, at least until after I'm gone. Yes, I'll be seeing this scene for many years to come.