Pat Kelly

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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