Grace Concannon was losing hope in her search for just the right summer place when she happened by a “For Sale” sign on a rocky hill in Plymouth in 2009. The house was a 1980s contemporary style, not at all what she was looking for, but as she gazed down from high atop the cliff and witnessed the panoramic view of the ocean, she was sold. “It took my breath away,” she says. “The view was so calming, I could feel my blood pressure drop.” 

“It was a quirky upside-down house,” as Grace describes it, “because you enter the ground floor where the bedrooms are and have to go upstairs to the kitchen and living area to see the view.” It wasn’t really conducive for entertaining family and friends, but she began to have a vision about how they could renovate it. She held fast to that vision, and years later turned it into an award-winning reality.

Admitting to being a ‘magazine-aholic,’ Grace devoured home magazines, cutting out decorating ideas and musing with her husband Brian about them. “Living in the house over eight summers, we discovered all the home’s peculiarities and knew what we wanted to do,” she says. When it was time to make the transition to a full-time residence, they were ready to make changes. Opening up the rooms and maximizing the views was a top priority. Also of major importance, they wanted to make it a place where they could entertain expansively and where Grace could fully enjoy her love of cooking both indoors as well as outdoors: as in a California kitchen. 

They engaged Good Life New England of Norwell, a residential design firm that specializes in space planning and fine cabinetry, whom they had worked with before on a small project. “It was such a pleasure to work with Glenn and Brittany,” Grace says. “They brought all my ideas to life.” Glenn Meader, the principal of Good Life, was the lead designer on the project. “Our residential designer Brittany Carroll had an ever-present and amazing supporting role in design,” Meader recalls, “so the Concannons received the complements of our respective strengths.” It was clearly a successful choice because their collaboration resulted in an outdoor kitchen nestled under a deck with views to the pool and ocean beyond which won a Gold PRISM award in the Outdoor Category from BRAGB, the Builder’s & Remodeler’s Association of Greater Boston. 

While Good Life New England’s specialty is the design and installation of custom cabinetry, their services are a perfect extension into the remodeling process. “The clients had very specific features in mind for the outdoor kitchen,” Meader explains. “They wanted Grace to be fully immersive with cooking, as well as extend the outdoor season from spring to fall.

A 42” grill by Twin Eagles was a starting element that Meader positioned so the family could enjoy the view of the ocean while being able to interact with guests at the poolside counter bar. “We also incorporated a burner and a 30” stainless bar setup, both manufactured by Twin Eagles, with a sink, ice well, and bottle opener that we paired in close proximity with a stainless under-counter refrigerator by Delta Heat,” he adds.

Another important feature: an outdoor television so that they could catch the Boston sports games while enjoying the outdoor atmosphere.

Meader also incorporated different seating areas for different purposes:  seating poolside for a drink at the bar or watching the game, bar seating that looked out to the pool and ocean beyond, and a stone dining table where the family can gather for meals.

Grace wanted the feel of the outdoor kitchen to emanate warmth. ”We have so much stone on the property, especially with the new landscaping around the pool, and we wanted to add a wood look to give it a timeless feel,” she explains. To fulfill this desire, Meader suggested outdoor cabinetry with the appearance of traditional wood and the convenience of a broad array of interior accessories as he explains, “The unique construction and materials designed into this cabinetry overcome the challenges of wood for preserving joinery and finishes under the extremes of nature while bringing the beautiful look of wood into this outdoor environment.”

Grace and Brian love cooking in their newly imagined California kitchen, “Cooking outside is more relaxed. You feel like you are on vacation,” she notes. “We do a lot of grilling and steaming lobsters on the gas burners. I’ve even made pancakes on the griddle, which is a nice way to wake up.”

In addition to this award-winning outdoor kitchen, Meader’s design team was responsible for significant changes indoors. Meader reflects that, “Initially we came in to do the kitchen and that led to planning many additional spaces, so we had the pleasure of working throughout the house and contributing to the feel of the whole place.” 

They designed the new indoor kitchen, added a pantry, a wet bar near the porch for entertaining, and a bar in the lower level man cave. Integrating all these pieces as a whole was an exacting undertaking,  assisted by the 3D modeling service that Good Life New England offers. Grace went to their design studio to look at a vast array of materials to choose from and brought home samples to consider. Ultimately the 3D modeling gave her an experience that immersed her in the new spaces.  

“It was very helpful to see all the pieces together in a bird’s eye view layout. After months of just picturing how things would work, it was reassuring to see it all come together,” she says.

“Our 3D modeling process is truly a game changer for clients,” Meader confirms. “It enables them to visualize what most struggle to perceive from standard two-dimensional drawings. They can select a variety of different materials and finish options in the composition of the designed space, rather than try to hold separate samples together in their imagination.”

There were unique challenges with the existing kitchen space to realize Grace’s vision to open it to the living area and enjoy the gorgeous views while cooking. “The shape stretched long but was too narrow for a long island to stretch with it,” Meader explains. “We wanted the space to flow. We handled this challenge with an intentional separation of zones. The wider part of the kitchen received a seven-foot island and the main sink area, both with views to the ocean beyond. A built-in Sub-Zero refrigerator was positioned at the transition between this wider space and the more narrow half of the kitchen, where cabinets wrapped in a U-shape, extending storage and counter space toward the range.”

“A great feature of their kitchen now is that while it’s not positioned at the ocean-side of the house, it is very open to all the adjacent living spaces that boast ample windows with ocean views,” Meader continues. In the formerly sunken living room, Grace changed a brick fireplace into a double-sided stone fireplace and raised the floor two feet to be seamlessly connected to the rest of the space. “Now the sink area enjoys not only views to the water, but views to the fireplace in the living room and beyond,“ Meader explains. Grace’s satisfaction with the result is evident when she says, “The kitchen flows so much better and cooking and entertaining have been a joy.  It is so nice that guests can sit and talk and have a glass of wine while I’m working in the kitchen.”

Adjacent to the kitchen, Grace also got the pantry she’s always wanted. Handsome cabinets with tall glass doors offer storage on one side, while the opposite side offers an additional sink, dishwasher and a built-in steam oven. Grace’s fun decorating style is evident with a unique collection of rolling pins that attach to the wall like an art display. To make the home’s lower-level dramatically more comfortable, Meader had to work with odd angles to create an open and entertaining space that includes a wet bar. He sums it up by saying, “The lower level bar and surrounding finished space was as dramatic a transition as any in the house.” Higher plastered ceilings replaced a low lattice ceiling, formerly painted black to conceal the mechanicals above. The full bar, crafted in natural walnut, features a wine refrigerator, open shelves for display, and glass and solid door upper cabinets for liquor and other storage.

The lower section includes a large bar sink, a raised bar counter for guests, a serving counter for making drinks and an under-counter beverage refrigerator. The adjacent lounging space with a large screen television and comfortable seating is adorned with sports paraphernalia from Boston teams and has become Brian’s favorite spot in the house.

“Altogether it was a very big and satisfying remodeling effort that we were thrilled to be part of,” Meader recalls. “I was floored with Grace’s beautiful taste and what she has created throughout the house. It is so relaxing that whenever I’ve visited, I don’t want to leave.” 

On the Concannon’s part, the changes have made their lives easier and made it more fun to entertain. What she still loves most, Grace says is, “to sit in the living room with a cup of tea and enjoy the boundless views.”  

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Rebecca Brown has been at Classic Kitchen & Interiors since 1992 and their design manager for just over a decade since 2008. She’s probably designed more than 600 kitchens and says she’s still excited by each new project because “every one is totally different and an intriguing puzzle to solve. Each has its own criteria, its pieces that have to be seen as equally important and fit together as part of a whole.”  

During the initial consultation with a homeowner of a sprawling home in Chatham, Brown understood that their kitchen would be the heart of the house as part of a great room designed for casual entertaining for family and friends.  

For Brown, planning optimal functionality while considering client’s preferences, available space, the architecture, orientation to light sources and the view, and then tweaking it until the client loves it is the most enjoyable part of the design process. 

In this case she worked closely with the architects of SV Design who were creating an ideal home for this active family. The plans called for a kitchen open to an informal living area, with French doors leading to the porch and lawn on one side and doors leading to the pool and outdoor cooking area on the other.  

“The architects suggested that we have two islands, one for cooking, one for casual dining,” Brown says.   “We filled in the details of those islands during meetings with the homeowner and architects as we looked at possible door styles and finish selections in our showroom.  We ordered sample doors in some proposed finishes so they could select the best finish to complement the floors and other aspects of the room.” 

Brown felt it was very important to maximize the enjoyment of the spectacular view of the pond offered by a wide picture window. She centered the sink under the window, flanked on one side by the stainless Sub-Zero refrigerator and on the other by the Wolf ovens. The Wolf stovetop is placed in an island opposite the sink and the hood is mounted flush to the ceiling to preserve the aesthetics.  

In addition to a regular dishwasher, they added a secondary dishwasher drawer on the island and created special drawers for storing plates, trays, platters and glasses.

The second island, which provides seating, is placed closer to the doors to the pool. There is also a small bar which has a glass wall cabinet, a refrigerator, and special storage for grill tools and trash for easy access to the outdoor cooking area.    

“I’d say the style of this kitchen is transitional,” Brown explains.  “It bridges both the traditional and contemporary styles. There is no crown molding, the lines are rectilinear, there are few wall cabinets, and appliances are hidden. This kitchen is simple and serene with soft gray-blue painted finishes.”

The whole process from consulting to ordering to installing took about a year. Brown always feels a great satisfaction with the end result, as it’s partly her creation. Her greatest compliment came, she says, when the client told her “…if she had it to do over again, there’s nothing she would do differently.”   

Take a look at these other Kitchen Inspirations

Coastal Cove

Lakefront Living

Silver Linings

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Balancing Act

An ingenious redesign allows this Chatham home to fully embrace both its peaceful and playful sides

Say you’ve enjoyed your summer home with your family for about 10 years, but now you feel it’s time to make some updates. Do you renovate the house that holds so many memories, or do you tear it down and build anew? This is a tough decision for anyone to make, but especially if you are a family of seven, with five boys, ranging in age from 12 to 25, and a dog. So you decide to seek advice from experienced professionals. 

That question—to rehab or rebuild—is one that architect Leslie Schneeberger, associate principal of SV Design of Beverly and Chatham, had to wrestle with when contacted by a client who lived in an older house along the tidal inlet of Chatham’s Little Mill Pond. 

There was so much to love about the property. The view of the sprawling green lawn and the blue pond with boats floating along its surface was a life-enhancing sight that had given the family joy every day they spent there. It was clear that the lawn was the place the kids had been enjoying for years. As Schneeberger observed, “With five active boys, room to run around and play a game of tag football was a must.”     

When the homeowners expressed their needs to Schneeberger and SV Design—to preserve the view and as much lawn as possible, to keep the existing separate garage, to add a pool and to have their home reflect the casual Cape Cod lifestyle yet still be sophisticated—they realized they had come to the right place. Schneeberger’s own must-list for planning a summer home includes maximizing the view, creating flexible spaces for socializing, and designing for comfort. She told the homeowners they could create a place for “quality time with family and friends—and precious downtime just for you.”    

SV Design’s philosophy is to “create places of beauty and integrity that are timeless in style, highly functional, and thoughtfully placed in the landscape,” offering services in architecture, interior and landscape design. “Because the existing house was not very functional,” Schneeberger recalls, “with awkwardly placed rooms with cut-off views, a shallow foundation, and materials that were not of a quality to preserve, it didn’t make sense to spend a lot of extra money to work around what existed and still ultimately have to compromise with the final result.” They all decided it’d be best to build a new home. 

The architecturally brilliant solution was to build a home in the shape of a “Y.” “Though we started with a ‘V’ shape to embrace their beloved Cape Cod lawn, the setbacks and the existing garage restricted locations for the pool,” Schneeberger explains. “The ‘Y’ shape helped us to get everything in and create a large variety of outdoor spaces. It made it possible to create two wings to the house: an active wing and a quiet wing.” The homeowners chose C.H. Newton Builders to turn this vision into a reality. “We had the perfect design-build team from the outset,” says Schneeberger, “each firm offering separate expertise to benefit the homeowner.”    

“It was a big challenge for us to complete this project in 10 months so that the family could be enjoying it by the summer,” admits Ryan Newton, vice president of C.H. Newton Builders. “It was possible because we had great communications with everyone. We were in touch with the neighbors, answering questions from the beginning. As we progressed, we met with the SV Design team and kept the owners up-to-date with weekly reports and photos. Though the homeowners were out of state, they were always quick to respond so we could make adjustments and take advantage of opportunities to do something new and creative.”    

Together, they have created a spectacular home where the family’s daily rhythms can flow easily from active to quiet—from sharing time together to enjoying time alone.

A circular driveway leads to the welcoming entrance of a wide porch under a gambrel roof, a style of roof and house that the clients always liked and were happy to have for their new home—a home where, as Schneeberger says, “The amazing views are the first thing you see when you enter.” As you open the front door, you see straight through the dining room to the outdoors and are drawn through the French doors to a large semi-circular patio and the expansive lawn and pond beyond. Hugging this view, the arms of the “Y” structural shape of the two-story home, stretch the length of the house to the right—the “active” side—and to the left—the “quiet” side.

Katherine Fisher, interior design project manager at SV Design, says she enjoyed decorating this “modern-day beach house” to be a “functional, comfortable and beautiful” space. SV Design, with Classic Kitchens & Interiors, designed the kitchen to be as open as possible and not distract from the view. Enchanting views of the pond change daily in the large picture window over the sink. Fisher notes that a large secondary island at the rear of the kitchen, which leads out to the pool area, allows for casual family dining. Moving into the connected family room, “Comfort was huge,” Fisher says. “And the space needed to accommodate a lot of family and friends. The sectional maximizes seating, the swivel [chair] moves to view the water or the seating area, small cubes can be moved about the space for flexible seating, and bench seat cushions flank the fireplace with storage underneath.” 

“Blue is the primary color, with accents of orange, and we used indoor/outdoor fabrics for durability,” Fisher continues. “The Roman drapery is fixed and purely decorative to soften the windows. Motorized solar shades sit behind them for privacy and shade when needed.” Every room is designed to receive optimal sunlight. High ceilings and a variety of windows and doors fill the house with sweeping light throughout. Even on an overcast and dreary day, it remains incredibly bright inside.  

To the left of the centralized formal dining room is the quiet side of the house. A more formal living room overlooks a hillock, where a hammock hung between trees invites a nap. The view can also be enjoyed from the built-in window seat, flanked by cabinets and shelves for books and family treasures. The beautifully designed coffered ceiling and modern lighting fixture add to the refined nature of the room.

Off this living room is a small study, an ideal spot for either getting some work done or lounging in. From here the homeowners can step outside to the lower-level deck and watch the boats sail by on the pond, or enjoy a quiet afternoon meal on the patio. The stairway to the second floor, which is filled with light from a tall, elegant arched window, leads you to the center of the house, “where all roof geometries come together,” says Schneeberger. The ceiling in the “rotunda” reflects the roof deck above it. That roof deck is a circular widow’s walk—the ultimate place for solitude, and perhaps star gazing at night.

Newton is especially proud of the fine craftsmanship that went into the making of the “ship’s ladder” style staircase that leads to the widow’s walk. “It sweeps up the wall following the wall’s radius,” he explains. “The treads, stringers, balusters and handrails are all fabricated in matching Sapele mahogany. When viewed from the center of the room, it appears that the handrails and stringers are twisting up toward the widow’s walk in a serpentine curve. Complex work like this is hard to achieve, but it was flawlessly executed by the stair builders.”

Radiating from this center, the master suite is deliberately situated on the quiet side of the house and opens out to the curved upper deck overlooking the pond. The boys’ bedrooms, bathrooms and a laundry room are located on the other side of the second floor and boast pond views.

On a sunny summer day, it’s easy to imagine the boys throwing the football around on the lawn, running up the steps to grab a cold drink in the kitchen, then heading out the other side to jump into the pool. This house is designed for easy access to its amenities—like how the game room in the walkout basement leads to a side patio, complete with a fire pit, and up to the pool. A wide pool deck with a sectional sofa and lounge chairs can accommodate a group of friends, who can stay in the guest suite in the garage that overlooks the pool. 

The team has succeeded in designing a home that meets the needs of its owners for gathering with family and friends and for enjoying their special view, a view that is the first thing they see in the morning and the last thing they see at night.

A mudroom is also on Schneeberger’s must-list for a summer home—another space where the transformation from active to quiet can occur. In this home’s mudroom, there’s a sign stating, “This is my happy place.” Maybe that says it all.

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Adam Rhude’s warm and realistic paintings invite you to share a quiet moment. You just might want to sit down, sip from a glass of cappuccino, and write a letter to a friend. Evoking a sense of place and simple pleasure is what Rhude says he enjoys as “an antidote to the fast-paced, screen-obsessed time we live in.”  

Rhude grew up in Cotuit, but says “… as a kid you want to get out to see the world.” And so he did. Now he’s back and has made a home with his wife and two young sons in Falmouth, truly appreciating “the charm, pace of life and community” he’s found here.   

His desire to pursue a career as an artist was motivated by his third-grade buddies’ enthusiasm over a drawing he did, an aunt who encouraged him, and his father—a teacher and ship captain who cut out Norman Rockwell’s illustrations from calendars and arranged them like a collage on the basement walls. His artistic journey began at the Savannah College of Art and Design. From there he went to New York City to work as an illustrator and began classical training in drawing. He had a successful solo exhibition of his figure studies at the Cape Cod Museum of Art in 2003—his first show on the Cape—and started to win awards from the Portrait Society.   

He traveled to Guatemala to be with Rachael (now his wife), who was setting up a childcare center there. They later lived in Ireland and Scotland, and in 2009 they moved back to the Cape to work with CapeAbilities and be close to family.   

Rhude has gravitated toward painting intimate still lifes, which he finds surprisingly challenging and fun. “I can spend hours setting up an arrangement in the studio,” he says. “With only a few objects, there are infinite compositional possibilities. I give special consideration to lighting, which can determine the mood of the painting. As I make changes, I try to stay true to my original inspiration for the picture. I look for subjects that resonate with me and hopefully resonate with others.”

Rhude’s palette choice is greatly influenced by the portrait painter Ron Sherr, with whom he studied at the Art Students League in New York City. “I paint with a fairly limited palette,” Rhude explains. “It’s possible to mix a copious array of colors with just a few pigments. I tend to use bright, warm cadmiums sparingly. That said, when I need them, they’re indispensable. The best palette, for me, is the simplest possible that can routinely produce a color spectrum that is not lacking.” 

Since both of his sons will be in school soon, Rhude will have more time to paint portraits. He just finished a painting of his youngest son, Theo, in which innocence and tenderness shine through. “Working with a subject you love is truly rewarding,” he says. 

Adam Rhude is represented by Tree’s Place, Orleans,
For more on the artist, visit adamrhude.com.

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“I’m really trying to paint the essence of the Cape,” says Ginny Nickerson. “I have a love of wild nature, the oceans and beaches.” It’s no wonder that the love of the wild beauty of the Cape is deeply in her blood, as her ancestor William Nickerson settled in its wildness and founded Chatham in the 1600s. In her paintings, Nickerson says she wants to express “… the softness of the light on the water, sand and dunes. To be able to capture this beauty… I can think of nothing more wonderful.”

The colors of the Cape are very special to Nickerson. “Our sand is a rarity,” she says. “The purple in the sand is from quahog shells. I love to blend the purples and grays and taupe colors. I want to create a mood so the viewer can feel they are walking into the painting.”    

Though watercolor was her medium for many years, her passion now is for pastels. “With pastels you’re painting with sticks of pure pigment. You have to choose the right color, not mix it on the palette like you do oil paint,” Nickerson explains. “That takes us back to the paintings by the cavemen, so we know that, treated properly, they can last a long time.”

She works on gatorboard, which is stiff and impervious to water. She adds a gel pumice mixture with a three-inch brush randomly, which gives it the tooth to make it painterly, and when it dries it becomes archival. Then the fun of layering beautiful colors begins. Nickerson’s paintings begin with thoughtful pre-planning for visits to her favorite places to hit the light and the tides when they are just right for taking photos. Back in her studio, she prints the photos from her computer, some in black and white and some in color. From these photos she’ll start two or three paintings and then decide which one she wants to continue to work on.

Nickerson’s artwork brings her closer to nature, and she is so grateful to be able to experience its beauty. She says, “If I can look out at the water shimmering like diamonds under a rising sun and capture that and bring it to life for others to appreciate, I’ve done something for someone.” 

Nickerson recently created a series about clamdiggers to honor the men and women who provide food for us, and she is now focused on painting trees. “It saddens me that our ancestors had to chop down so many trees, and we continue to see the habitat for wildlife disappearing,” she says. “Hopefully we’ll realize that the wildness adds to the Cape’s beauty and we’ll be able to protect it.”

Nickerson counts five family connections to the Mayflower Pilgrims. As chair of the board of the Chatham Historical Society, she is looking forward to next year’s celebration of the 400th anniversary of the Pilgrims’ first landing on the Cape, and the many ways we will be reminded of how life was back then. Undoubtedly her art will transport her audience in yet another new and intriguing way.

Ginny Nickerson is represented by Gallery Antonia, Chatham, galleryantonia.com.
Learn more about Nickerson at ginnynickerson.com. 

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Growing up in picturesque Vina del Mar, Chile, Cecilia Capitanio was surrounded by vivid clothing and vibrant gardens, and she expressed her love of color through painting in school.  Her desire to continue to create art was ignited when she won first place in a regional art contest. She loved painting animals and people’s faces. She still does.

Capitanio’s marriage brought her to Cambridge and later Framingham, MA, and while raising her family she delved into the study of the master impressionists and attended classes at the Danforth Museum of Art in Framingham, and Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. Throughout the years, Capitanio has been influenced by Chilean artist Jaime Alfonso—who is an accomplished painter residing in the U.S.—and the many artists she’s taken courses with, including Ellen VanWyck and David Curtis of Rockport, Constance Flawell Pratt of Norwell, and the Cape’s Charles Soveck.  

Twenty years ago, as painting began to take up more of her time, she moved to Falmouth. “I knew the Cape because we had come for vacations many times,” Capitanio says. “The Cape is such a special place to be for an artist. Surrounded by so many art galleries, museums, art associations and great artists, I knew I would be more involved with painting here.”  

Capitanio enjoys painting different subjects in different media. She usually paints on small formats for plein air and larger formats for portraits or commissions in the studio. “Cape Bog” was painted on the spot when the color and beauty of the scene caught her attention. “I want to show the warmth and the beauty of the Creator,” she says. “When I paint a portrait, landscape or still life, my desire is to help people see what surrounds them from a different perspective, with the hope that it will entice them to teach their children to love and respect creativity and art.” 

In many of her paintings, Capitanio strives to tell a story because she wants the viewer to “think about what they’re looking at, when it began and where it goes,” she explains. “I choose many subjects by observing people’s facial expression and characteristics, where they live or what they do on a daily basis.” About her oil painting “Chicken Feast 2,” she says: “I went to a farm and had the itch to paint what I saw. I saw a woman feeding the chickens with an expression on her face showing great pleasure in what she was doing.” The sad look on the face of the old man in “The Egg Vendor” leads her, and she hopes others, to wonder, “Is it because he hasn’t sold so many eggs yet, or for another reason?”

Cecilia’s paintings have been exhibited in numerous juried art shows in the U.S. and in countries abroad. “It always gives me pleasure to get to know people personally and to see their reaction when looking at a painting with smiles, or many times with mixed emotions because it brings back memories,” she says.

Cecilia Capitanio is represented by:

Woodruff’s Art Center, Mashpee, woodruffsartcenter.com,
and The Gallery on Main, Falmouth, thegalleryonmainfalmouth.com.

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So fascinated by the drama of the ocean, Jeanne Rosier Smith has been painting it for 10 years. “The ocean changes constantly,” she says. “I see a clash of opposites—motion and stillness, wet and dry, warm and cool—and also a place of light, life and turning tides.”

Smith is well-known for her pastel paintings of the sea and waves. “For me, the ocean’s moods reflect the human spirit. You can read every emotion in its constant movements,” she says. “I’m not surprised to find that collectors who are psychologists put them in their offices and couples put them in their bedrooms.”

She lives in Sudbury, MA but often visits family and favorite beaches on the Cape and Nantucket. Even with the drama the ocean reveals, being at the ocean feels like meditation. “I relate to the changes in the tides, like breathing, and it’s instantaneous relaxation,” Smith says.   

Indeed, some of the energy of the ocean seems to be absorbed by Smith. She’s a busy and prolific artist:  teaching, blogging, painting, giving demonstrations and talks, consulting, exhibiting nationally and internationally, winning awards, and creating a DVD instructional series. She’s able to keep focused on her growth by talking with other artists. “We give each other inspiration and encouragement,” she explains.

Smith grew up painting and studied art at Georgetown University and later at the DuCret School of Art in New Jersey. After earning a Ph.D. in English, she taught college English for 10 years. She first discovered pastel when her uncle sent her a box of Nupastels over 20 years ago. “You might enjoy these,” he told her. That changed her life. She had found her medium. Gradually she made the switch to painting full-time and began teaching workshops from her home. 

Smith loves the velvety feel of the “rich, pure pigments that allow vibrations of color and visual mixing impossible to capture in any other medium.” She says that as she paints, “My pastel stick in my hand becomes the tip of a paintbrush; depending on how I hold it, how it touches the paper, and the amount of pressure I use, I can create large, bold strokes or the tiniest, delicate detail. I feel the sun and the sea spray while I’m painting the ocean, and remember summer hours spent in the waves.” 

Beyond painting waves, Smith also enjoys painting vibrant flowers and food. Currently she’s interested in exploring “the abstract underlying designs beneath the realistic images I paint.”  

Smith says that the tragic loss of her mother, who died at a young age, gives her “a visceral sense of appreciating every day and the little things in life. As an artist, your eyes have to be open all the time to see things in a fresh way,” she says. “Being an artist helps me to hold on to that appreciation of everything.”

Jeanne Rosier Smith is represented by Gallery 31 Fine Art, Orleans,
gallery31capecod.com. Her website is jeannerosiersmith.com.

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Jonathan Earle always enjoyed drawing. He studied landscape architecture in college and so enjoyed the art classes he had to take that he considered becoming an artist. He decided against that for considerations of making a living. Yet the idea always nagged at him, and one day he made it a reality.   

Earle started out as a landscape architect and became a construction superintendent for an elevator company for 12 years. From rooftops, he would often see the city skylines and long to sketch them. When his mother, who became ill shortly after retiring from the career she loved as a teacher, urged him not to wait until he retired to follow his passion, he decided to make changes in his life. He formed his own business, Green Cardinal Landscapes, to be closer to his wife and two children in Sandwich and to have time to pursue art.     

Five years ago, Earle set out to learn to paint as methodically as if he were taking on a new job.  He knew he needed to master the fundamentals. He had the winters free to study and he found his perfect teacher in Mary Moquin at several classes at the Cape Cod Art Center. “I knew I could learn the nuts and bolts from her,” Earle says.  

He was patient. He worked a year on tone and value exclusively. “For a couple of years, I didn’t keep any work. I just kept scraping down and starting over,” he says. “I’d use a canvas eight or 10 times before I’d throw it away. I could ask Mary anything, and she was always available to help me find my own style.” He did find his own style and began entering exhibitions and winning awards. 

In Earle’s distinctive style, one can see the influence of his singular past experience. “Creating a sense of place in the landscape is at the core of landscape architecture,” he says. “A sense of place carries the experience of emotions associated with a familiar setting.”   

Earle always admired the Ashcan School artists, known for their gritty subjects and dark palette. Working as a builder, he spent a lot of time in city streets and was always drawn to the way light hit the dark alleys, how a street light illuminated a shop and reflections shone from cars and storefront windows—all of which are subjects in his paintings. The skills of drawing lines and creating perspective that he learned for his landscape work add dynamic movement to his work today. “I want to create depth and atmosphere, always wanting the eye to travel deeper into the painting,” Earle says. 

Earle, who in his previous occupation would keep a keen eye on the weather forecast, now truly enjoys cloudy days, when the quality of the light allows him to paint en plein air and capture the subtle shifts of the unique atmosphere. This summer he is looking forward to doing more painting on the Cape and capturing the beauty and colors found across the region. July 27 will mark a milestone for Earle when Orleans’ Addison Art Gallery will host his first solo exhibition.

Jonathan Earle is represented by Addison Art Gallery, Orleans, addisonart.com

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Kay Ritter feels very fortunate that she started “living the artist’s dream” soon after graduating as a sculpture major from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1971. She began creating large caricatures of people in fabric mâché using burlap, real clothes and props from junk shops. A New York gallery picked her up, collectors loved her pieces, and she enjoyed success with this work for 20 years.

But then Ritter felt she was just repeating herself, and she was “itching to do something else.” She experimented with different media and styles and discovered she loved painting still life, bringing her love of detail, her sense of humor and imagination into her new work. 

Ritter’s work flows in two directions. She paints classic still life, such as exquisitely detailed flowers painted from setups right in front of her, and whimsical narrative paintings that combine her realistic still life with something from her imagination. “I love bringing something to common objects so that you can see them in a different light,” she says. “As I developed my skills, I felt the urge to inject a narrative into my paintings. When I felt comfortable I began to add something that wasn’t right in front of me… like crows, which I admire, showing off how smart they are.” 

Its that unexpected element that Ritter includes that sets the humorous tone to her work while also causing the viewer to pause and re-consider the work with a new perspective.

For “Holiday Dinner,” one of her most recent paintings, she set up her own dining room with as much detail as she could and then added a slew of classic holiday figures, from Cupid to Santa Claus, having a good time. “It was so wonderful to watch people as they connected with this painting at the exhibition. One man had a 2-year-old who had so much fun recognizing the Easter Bunny. I actually feel like I’m passing energy to others,” she says.

Ritter is an avid gardener and a huge fan of 19th-century artist Henri Fantin-Latour. “No one painted a better flower than he did,” she says. “At this point in time I am drawn to flowers more than any other subject material. Because they change so rapidly, I arrange them and quickly lay out a line drawing on the panel or canvas. Then I rough in the color as accurately as possible. Because my paintings are so painstakingly realistic and require many paint layers to create that illusion, I photograph the flowers early on to remind myself of their structure in their ‘original pose.’”

Ritter’s ideas come to her “like a bolt from the sky.” Currently she is starting to paint daffodils and has ideas for three narrative paintings that make her laugh to herself. “The most important thing is doing something that lights me up, that makes me want to get up,” she says. 

“I’m still living the artist’s dream,” Ritter says. “Not getting rich, but having fun. I’m not as fast as I used to be, but I’m still cranking.” –

Kay Ritter is represented by Chapman Art Gallery in Cotuit and Mashpee, chapmanartgallery.com.
To learn more about Ritter, visit kayritter.com. 

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From the first day she took a class in pastel painting at the library, Lois Castellana was hooked. She was so moved by the intensity of the colors that she was determined to teach herself everything about the medium. She says she had always admired the Old Masters—Sargent, Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Vermeer—“but I realized that painting and pastels have a special language and I had to learn it.”

Thus began her creative journey over the past 11 years—reading books about technique, taking classes from pastel artists on the Cape, joining pastel societies, entering exhibitions, and learning by trial and error to create her own style. Today, the vibrancy of the color blue that she is so drawn to shines from her seascapes to add their brilliant light to her garage studio.       

Castellana paints large beachscapes and seascapes, many with solitary boats floating in a calm sea of blues and violets. They convey that sense of peace she feels at so many places on the Cape. She says she enjoys painting on a big canvas. 

“To be able to wander into a painting and engage in an atmospheric perspective is very appealing to me,” Castellana explains. “I strive to create a sense of mindfulness, tranquility, and hopefully a sense of joy.”

Castellana doesn’t favor just one spot. “There’s just so much beauty everywhere,” she says. “My husband enjoys taking part in my creative process by finding new places with me. We just get in the car and drive and stop where we feel like it.” Discovering another inspiring view that evokes feelings in her, she’ll snap many photos. “Bringing these photos back to my studio and attempting to translate these feelings onto a canvas—this is why I paint.”

“My projects are always the same—a blank canvas, which makes for a new and engaging project each time,” Castellana adds. “My enthusiasm and drive are what influence and push me to create.”

After sketching the composition, Castellana explains: “I then apply color, and brush an alcohol wash over the entire surface, liquefying the first layer of pastels. This creates a painterly, luminous effect. Once dry, the magic begins, as the underpainting takes hold. My husband calls this ‘The ghost.’ As more color is applied, building on lights and darks, detailed images emerge and the painting takes shape.”

The couple lives in Milford, but they spend time all year-round at their place behind Carmine’s Pizza off Main Street in Chatham. In good weather, Castellana opens her garage door, puts on her music, sets up her easel, and paints in the full light. It can become very busy with so many people passing by on their way to shops and restaurants. But it doesn’t bother her if they stop to watch her paint and want to chat. 

“It’s gratifying when they admire my work,” she says.  “And if someone shows interest in buying a piece, it makes me feel complete.”

Lois Castellana exhibits with the Pastel Painters Society of Cape Cod, the Cape Cod Art Center in Barnstable and at the Bistro Restaurant in Chatham. loiscastellanafineart.com.

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