Toward the end of the summer I spent four days at Rock Port, Massachusetts, because of my appreciation of and admiration for the painter Emile Gruppe. He spent most of his time painting in Rock Port and in Vermont.
Gruppe was absolutely a Plain Air painter and loved painting the water and boats. He was also a student of another landscape painter from our area who I greatly admire, John Carlson. Gruppe lived in Rock Port and was one of the founding members of the oldest artist association in the United States, The North Shore Artist Association.
I wanted to see what inspired Gruppe, even though he painted there several decades earlier. Although I had longed to jump right into painting boats, I realized I needed to be able to draw them well first. So I spent time drawing varieties of boats, in and out of the water. I did get in a number of early morning paintings of the lovely salt marshes. They presented a distinct challenge because the tide and the light constantly changed.
It was a very stimulating environment not only visually, but because of the presence of other artists painting at various sites where I set up my easel. When I returned home, I was inspired to get out and paint here while the light and weather were so good.
On incliment days, I’ve been working from my sketches and material I compiled at Rock Port. Slowly, a new body of work is beginning to emerge.
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This spring, I attended a Kelly family reunion of cousins, second cousins and second cousins once removed. The gathering, at the home of a cousin whose home in Rye , New York overlooks Long Island Sound, catapulted back to scenes from my youth. My family and I also lived near Long Island Sound and spent hours in, on and around the water. We were regular ‘water rats’. I realized how much I miss the water and what a wonderful carefree time that was.
On vacations we always go to the ocean, and I love sketching figures. My favorite time in life drawing sessions is the short one-minute and three- minute poses, or gestures. At the beach, there are many such gestures — and — the beautiful light.
Since this Long Island Sound revelation, I’ve focused on sketching figures at our local beach on the banks of the Hudson River and then working them up from studies into paintings in pastel and oil.
The response has been enthusiastic from both jurors and clients. I’m very excited about this new direction.
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With some help from a friend, I established this Web site five years ago. A lot has happened in my artistic life since then… works sold, new projects, new commissions, offering Giclee prints and note cards, gallery openings, appearing in shows.
So, a revised Web site seemed like a logical next step for Pat Kelly, Artist.
With some help from the same friend, this revised Web site will function as a traditional artist’s site, complete with dozens of examples of my work, including works that are for sale.
But the new Web site can also function as an artist’s blog. I don’t plan to leap to my computer keyboard every day with some latest thought. After all, I’m a painter, not a writer. But I do plan to use this space periodically — perhaps once a week or so — to keep visitors to this Web site up to date about what I am working on and what’s going on with shows and galleries and my artist colleagues here in the Hudson River region.
Please feel free to use the Comments links on this web site.
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