Provincetown Library, Oil on Canvas is a available to buy here.

Nestled in the northern most tip of Cape Cod is a picture postcard paradise. Bing Crosby sings about the ‘quaint little villages,’ and Provincetown is definitely the star of a song like Old Cape Cod. A huddle of wooden houses and fisherman’s huts in the curve of the bay, bubbling with life and sailing boats.

Waking up on my first day in New England, I was hit by the light. Attracting artists from all over the world, the sunshine has a crisp golden quality which paints every building with a dynamic profile. When I saw the Library outside my beach house on Angel’s Landing, I knew I would be painting the sharp relief of its buttercream buttresses when I returned to England.

Closeup details from ‘Provincetown Library’

The first challenge was capturing the dazzling blue sky and its many different shades – a sky like I’d never seen before. The contrast of the warm stucco tower against the sapphire blue fascinated me and I took a lot of reference pictures. Challenge number two was the fine architectural details, which I had to paint and repaint before I could wrestle that strange perspective into submission. It soon dawned on me that I had chosen the most difficult subject to render after a ten year break from oil painting.

Following in the footsteps of my hero Edward Hopper, the great American realist, I arranged to view some of his preliminary sketches at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum. It was heartening to see just how rudimentary his drawings were, almost as bad as mine.

For most of my life I dreamt of immersing myself in Hopper’s world and seeing what he saw. As a local resident of peaceful Truro, Hopper wasn’t keen on Provincetown with its bustling tourists and he distanced himself from the bohemian art community which thrived there. Touring the Cape revealed many familiar locations as I realised I was stepping into his paintings. At one point I was sitting outside my local cafe, marvelling at the ancient architecture, and I asked myself if Hopper had ever seen this particular view.

A quick search revealed that he had indeed sat in the very spot where I was drinking my coffee and painted this view. Of course he had. And at that moment, the universe seemed to become slightly less complicated.