Cape Ann: Offshore Squall. September 1, 2013. Journal Painting. 3.5 x 10.5 inches. Watercolor on paper

Projecting eastward into the Atlantic Ocean, Cape Ann represents a landmass smaller than Cape Cod, that one hundred miles to the south encircles the southern waters of Massachusetts Bay. To the North is the Gulf of Maine, stretching three hundred miles eastward to the Bay of Fundy and Nova Scotia. Here the warm waters Gulf Stream mingle with the Labrador Current flowing south from the arctic region. Proper hurricanes seldom make landfall this far north. However, the offspring of tropical depressions can make for powerful storms that batter southern New England. Cape Ann and the Maine coast are more prone to Nor’easters. Positioned at a pivotal coastal location in relation to these weather-patterns, picturesque cloud-formations and light effects in the region have for centuries attracted artists to Cape Ann as much as its rocky coastline. This summer squall was painted from the seaward lawn at the Emerson Inn, near Cathedral Rocks in the Pigeon Cove section of Rockport.

Drawing on my recollections of cloud studies by Alexander Cozens, John Constable, J.M.W. Turner, I was reminded also of the late Bernard Chaet. His summer home was less than a mile from where I sat. Rising before dawn he would set up his painting equipment among the rocks, look out to sea and greet the sunrise. In one of his works dark clouds tower above sparkling seas. As we looked at the painting together. I turned to speak. Burning in his eyes, a fierce light defied the enveloping darkness that soon would overtake him.

Bernard Chaet. 4PM. Oil on Canvas. 2002. Courtesy Lew Allen Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico

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