Photography by Kelly Cronin Bicknell

Cape Cod artist Denise Kelly enjoys the interaction of light and landscape—and more

Stepping into Denise Kelly’s home is like walking into a museum: interesting artifacts, including an ornate telescope, are displayed in abundance; large glass windows let in the afternoon’s fading light; and many of the artist’s framed paintings adorn the walls.

Upon viewing any number of Kelly’s paintings, one quickly gets a sense as to why the artist was drawn to Cape Cod. A critical aspect of Kelly’s work is the use of light and shading, as seen in “View from Miller Hill,” an oil painting that depicts a large hill on Bradford Street in Provincetown, overlooking a neighborhood in the East End. The Cape’s ethereal light has been a draw for countless artists over the years, and for Kelly it was a natural fit.

“There’s something about the light on the Cape,” Kelly says. “I enjoy observing the way the light interacts with the landscape. Truro lies between the Atlantic Ocean and Cape Cod Bay, offering exceptional light and ever-changing scenery.”

During a recent visit to Kelly’s studio, an organized and well-lit space in the upstairs of her Truro home, the representational (or figurative) oil painter shared why she loves what she does and how she has found happiness in creating art. She also talked about her artistic process, gave details about several of her paintings, and attempted to answer the question: how did she—a native of France and a former New York City fashion designer—end up painting landscapes on the outskirts of the Cape?

For Kelly, life as an artist is about keeping her eyes open to the world around her, dissecting every detail, and then deciding what might make for a good composition. “I’m always tuned in to things I see around me,” she says. “Painting consumes so much of my thinking.”

Photography by Kelly Cronin Bicknell

The time she puts into a given piece—sometimes weeks or months—is a process the artist enjoys. “It’s rewarding to start with a thought or idea and be able to achieve it in a painting,” Kelly says. She views the layout of each painting as vitally important. “The most important step is composition,” says Kelly. “If the composition is wrong, sometimes I even have a physical reaction. My chest will ache until I alter the artwork.”

Kelly’s meticulous approach is rooted in the training she received from her mentor, the late Curtis Rosser of Orleans. “I want to paint it exactly the way it is in reality,” she says, “I was taught that it’s amateur to do otherwise.” When she first sought out Rosser as a potential mentor in the mid-1990s, the artist visited her studio, reviewed her work, and began to give her assignments and critiques on completed pieces. “The critiques were rather painful at first,” Kelly recalls, but she adds that the feedback helped her grow as an artist. “I would paint furiously,” she says, “so I would have more to show.”

Kelly generally paints in the afternoon, often playing classical music while she works. “I am detailed and a realist,” she says. “I like focusing on the architecture and the connection between people and buildings.” In her painting “Morning on Commercial Street,” for instance, Kelly depicts a well-known area in Provincetown from the perspective of a visitor on the street. The businesses along the road dominate the composition while visitors mill about in the background.

In her work Kelly likes to challenge herself, both in taking on new techniques and in tackling complex subjects. She frequently incorporates water into her paintings, such as in “On the Hunt,” which illustrates a crane standing in water. “I like my paintings to be moving,” she says, “with characters doing something or waiting for something.” In another piece, “Grand Central Station,” commuters can be seen walking along hand in hand, checking the train schedule, and purchasing tickets. “There are so many people going somewhere, doing something,” Kelly says, “and that intrigues me.”

Another of the artist’s personal favorites is a large, 30” x 40” study she completed of the American flag. Titled “Saluting the Flag,” the piece concentrates on the folds of the material as it waves. Bold red, white, and blue hues take up much of the canvas; planes soar through the clouds in the background; and the foreground is filled with the details of the fabric. The painting hangs above a staircase in Kelly’s home.

Photography by Kelly Cronin Bicknell

Winter is Kelly’s favorite season, and this sentiment is evident throughout her body of work, which includes many scenes of snowy streets and rooftops in Provincetown. In many of the paintings, the snow looks as if it would be cold to the touch. In her work, “Bringing Home the Tree,” an adult and child hold hands while dragging a Christmas tree down Atwood Lane in Provincetown’s west end. “I have used that lane as a setting for several paintings, which have always sold,” Kelly says. “It reminds one of old P-town.”

To start each painting, she always includes a solid foundation—traditionally known as the under-painting—in each of her pieces, a step that’s crucial to her process. “[Without this step] I would feel that the piece is not complete,” Kelly says. “I wish I used less detail, but it’s my nature.”

Raised in Paris, Kelly recalls that she was always inspired to create. “Even as a child, I was with a pad, drawing,” she says. Kelly moved to the United States with her family when she was 17. They settled in Rochester, New York, where Kelly’s mother’s relatives lived. After graduating from high school Kelly moved to New York City, where she earned a degree in fashion from the Traphagen School of Design. She then worked in the fashion industry for 20 years as a designer.

In New York she met her husband, David Kelly, through a cousin who worked with him in the financial services industry. The couple long planned to retire on Cape Cod, and bought land in Truro during the late 1980s. “We built our home in 1991,” Kelly recalls, “to be welcomed by Hurricane Bob. Fortunately, the storm caused little damage.”

Kelly retired from her career in fashion in 1989. Though fashion design offers opportunities for creativity, Kelly says, for her, the profession was more of a business than a pure, creative process. “I wanted to paint and answer to myself,” she recalls thinking. “I now realize that what I wanted to do all along—and what would have made me happiest—was painting.”

Photography by Kelly Cronin Bicknell

Once on the Cape, Kelly began to paint more and more. “Before long, it took over a good part of my life,” she says. “An art studio soon became a necessity—and it came as a special gift from my husband.”

With more room to work, Kelly was able to focus her energy on her craft—and sales and recognition followed. After receiving a “Best in Show” award at the Leo Diehl Exhibition Juried Show at the Chatham Art Center in 1997, Kelly was invited to exhibit her work at the Winstanley-Roark Fine Arts Gallery in Dennis. “I did very well there until the downturn in the economy,” says Kelly. “At that point, I decided to retire to my studio and just paint.”

When considering her artistic influences, Kelly cites the Dutch realist painters, including Johannes Vermeer, as well as American painter John Singer Sargent. Further, many of her paintings echo the work of James Whistler, a 19th-century artist from Lowell. Whistler is credited as being the founder of Tonalism, an art movement where a low-contrast color palette is used to create atmospheric effects in paintings, especially in landscapes. This influence can be seen in Kelly’s brushstrokes, color palette, and her compositional choices of snapshots of Cape Cod life. “On my life’s journey, I have met people who have inspired and supported me, and teachers who gave me the knowledge to hone my craft,” she says. “I will always be grateful to them.”

In addition to painting, Kelly says her biggest passions are spending time with her husband, and practicing yoga. “I find being aware of the physical body is beneficial to my painting,” says Kelly. “Meditation allows me to focus.” She also loves playing Scrabble and sometimes hosts Scrabble marathons with friends.

Kelly’s advice for aspiring artists? She suggests honing one’s skills, proceeding at one’s own pace, and possibly developing a signature style. “Learn practical technique,” she says, “but paint in your own way. People go to demos, and it’s like watching grass grow.”  As she herself has experienced, success as an artist is not something that comes about overnight. “You will have failures,” Kelly says, “and those will get you to your successes. If you really love it, you’ll get where you want to be.”

Denise Kelly’s studio is at 5 High Ridge Road Ext. in Truro. For more information about the artist, visit denisekellyfineart.com, or call 508-487-4255.

Sarah A. O’Brien is a freelance writer who lives in Boston.

The post Making Connections appeared first on Cape Cod LIFE.

Three eateries at Cape and Islands airports offer one-of-a-kind views—and some top-flight food!

Photo courtesy of Centerville Pie Company

Cape Cod is renowned for its abundance of dining options, many paired with exquisite views of the coastline. Another Cape and Islands trend that is taking off, so to speak, is the coupling of an enjoyable dining experience with an airport environment. “Airport food” typically conjures up an array of fast-food joints, but on Cape Cod and the Islands that image is far from accurate; the airports in Chatham, Hyannis, and Nantucket have begun to revolutionize the meaning of airport food for travelers and locals alike.

Even when air travel is not part of their plans, Cape Codders and Islanders are frequenting the airport eateries highlighted in the following pages for both their distinctive atmospheres and delicious meals. For a one-of-a-kind dining adventure, book a seat—at the Hangar B Eatery in Chatham, Centerville Pie Company’s new cafe at the Barnstable Airport, and Crosswinds Restaurant on Nantucket—and watch each dish touch down (on your table) with flair.

Ever had pie . . . on a plane?

Centerville Pie Company @ Barnstable Municipal Airport

The local women whom Oprah Winfrey has dubbed “the pie ladies” have opened a new location at Barnstable Municipal Airport. Earlier this spring, Laurie Bowen and Kristen Broadley, owners of Centerville Pie Company at 1669 Falmouth Road (Route 28) in Centerville, opened a new café at the airport. Serving breakfast and lunch, the café features a full-service grill and a menu loaded with a large selection of savory and sweet pies. The company also offers validated parking for café customers.

With a focus on local ingredients, including Cape Cod cranberries, Centerville Pie places the highest standards on food quality—and has developed a devoted following. “We are proud to offer travelers on Cape Cod the highest quality and most exciting food options available,” says Broadley. “There’s a lot of love in our food,” adds Bowen.

In addition to pies, the new airport café serves soups, salads, sandwiches, and more, including the company’s newly launched frozen shepherd’s pie. Currently, the airport café is open Monday through Friday, from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. The hours are likely to expand in summer.

Centerville Pie’s story is well known in local circles. Shortly after opening the business in March of 2009, Bowen and Broadley, who are married, learned that Ms. Winfrey was visiting the Cape to attend Eunice Kennedy Shriver’s funeral. Broadley dropped off a chicken pie for the celebrity at her hotel; Oprah reportedly loved it, and, with her compliments, the company was soon on the map and flourishing.

Centerville Pie has a relationship with Cape Abilities, a local organization that provides training and work opportunities for local adults who are developmentally disabled. The pie company employs a number of these Cape Cod individuals, and with the new airport cafe the owners hope to create even more work opportunities. Centerville Pie will also continue to donate a portion of its profits to Cape Abilities.

Barnstable Municipal Airport
480 Barnstable Road, Hyannis
774-470-1406 • centervillepies.com

Photo courtesy of Crosswinds Restaurant

A special spot that”s known for its specials

Crosswinds Restaurant @ Nantucket Memorial Airport

If Nantucket Memorial Airport looks familiar, it’s probably because the airport was the fictional setting for Wings, a sitcom that aired on NBC from 1990 to 1997. Not only does the airport double as the show’s “Tom Nevers Field Airport”—and cater to thousands of travelers every year—it’s also home to a popular local landing spot: Crosswinds Restaurant.

For travelers in search of a meal or a cocktail before or after a flight, Crosswinds offers indoor and outdoor seating and a full bar. Inside, model airplanes hanging from the ceiling and aviation-themed paraphernalia on the walls add to the décor, while actual airplanes are visible just outside.

Serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner daily, from 5:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Crosswinds offers a variety of traditional American dishes including fried calamari, fish and chips, and chicken pot pie, as well as the chef’s specialty: orecchiette pasta.

The restaurant also prepares different specials each night. On Tuesdays, diners can opt for the Steakhouse Sizzle, a choice of prime rib, New York strip steak, or filet mignon, served with mashed potatoes and vegetables for $12.95. Other popular specials include “Endless Pasta and 50¢ Jumbo Wing Night” on Wednesdays and “Traditional Turkey Dinner” on Sundays. The menu also features several “Breakfast at Night” options including buttermilk pancakes, omelets, and vanilla French toast. Another bonus? Crosswinds’ motto is “Bigger portions, smaller check.”

At the bar, customers can order a variety of cleverly named drinks including a Fogged In, a No Fly Zone, or, for the brave, a Nor’Easter with Grey Goose vodka, Midori Melon, and lemonade.

Lastly, Crosswinds offers an “On The Fly” counter where customers catching a flight, or otherwise on a tight schedule, can purchase a quick meal to go.

Crosswinds Restaurant
14 Airport Road, Nantucket
508-228-6005
crosswindsnantucket.com

Photo by Dan Cutrona

Fuel up for the day ahead

Hangar B Eatery @ Chatham Municipal Airport

On a typical summer day, Hangar B Eatery—the restaurant at the Chatham Municipal Airport—is filled with customers by about 7:30 a.m., and there’s a wait for the remainder of the day. According to Brian Erskine, who co-owns the restaurant with Tracy Shields, patrons with children generally don’t mind the wait because, with planes landing and taking off on the tarmac just outside, there’s always something to keep the kids entertained.

Located one floor above the airport’s reception office, Hangar B features a dining room and an outdoor deck, both of which afford views of the runway. During a visit earlier this year, it was easy to notice the restaurant’s casual feel and welcoming ambiance: a couple takes a selfie, a family of four orders breakfast, and a group of older longtime friends shares a meal by the window. “Just you today?” a server asks another regular walking in the door.

The “specials” board boasts dishes such as chocolate croissant French toast, while the regular menu offers several traditional options including a “pilot’s breakfast”—two eggs, home fries, sourdough toast, and sausage or bacon. The staff makes potato buttermilk doughnuts and other pastries, too. They even mix and bake their own organic granola and jar their own jam.

Erskine handles the menu and the food preparation; Shields coordinates the ambiance and serves as head waitress. She also created the restaurant’s colorful logo. When they opened Hangar B in 2010, the co-owners wanted to create a restaurant with a refined yet informal atmosphere that would provide healthy options using locally grown products. After moving to Cape Cod from the West Coast in 2007, they began scouting locations. “I’ve been a chef for 20 years,” Erskine says, “and when the space became available, we wanted to try out this idea.”

The business partners faced some challenges in those early years. “There was resistance at first to the idea of an airport restaurant that was upscale and used organic and local products,” Erskine says. “A lot of people told us, ‘You’ll never make it.’” Since then, the restaurant has grown into a popular local meeting place—for diners who drive, walk, or land. One day last summer, the staff cooked its way through 1,000 eggs.

“We have a healthy following,” Erskine says. “People are becoming more conscious about what they’re eating.” Erskine adds that everything in the restaurant is made from scratch, and several gluten-free options are available. Hangar B has received numerous accolades as well, and has been awarded the title of “Best Brunch Cape Cod” in Boston magazine in 2012, 2013, and 2014.

The name of the restaurant—Hangar B—celebrates the co-owners’ son, Booker, who is 9. Over the years, the employees and clientele have become like an extended family. “For a long time, it was just me and one other guy in the kitchen,” Erskine says. “Now we’ve expanded a bit, and a lot of the staff has remained the same over the years. It’s a family.”

The owners have big plans for the future, which include continued involvement in community service efforts—such as a recent contribution to Calmer Choice, a nonprofit that teaches mindfulness to students in Barnstable County—and perhaps even a Hangar B cookbook. “It’s become sort of amazing,” Erskine says. “I didn’t expect in my wildest imagination that the restaurant would be this successful.”

The restaurant is open from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. five days a week from April vacation to July 4; daily from July 4 to Labor Day; and Friday, Saturday and Sunday during the off-season.

Hangar B Eatery
240 George Ryder Road, Chatham
508-593-3655
hangarbcapecod.com

The post Are these restaurants on your radar? appeared first on Cape Cod LIFE.

Young Edgartown girl kept a journal while traveling with her family on a three-year whaling expedition

Artwork by Delaney Gosse

  Never underestimate the power of a girl with a journal and a story to tell; her words may one day make history. In October of 1868, Edgartown’s Laura Jernegan embarked with her family on what would be a three-year voyage aboard the whaling bark Roman. Just 6 years old at the time of the ship’s departure from New Bedford, Laura kept a journal over the ensuing three years, recording everyday life on the whaler as it sailed to the Pacific and beyond. Due to Laura’s keen observations, details can be learned of the expedition even though the Roman’s logbook no longer subsists.

Donated to the Martha’s Vineyard Museum, Laura’s journal has been preserved and digitized, and now lives online as part of a narrative exhibit titled, “Laura Jernegan: Girl on a Whaleship.” Launched in 2010, the website, girlonawhaleship.org, illustrates the distinctive contributions that Martha’s Vineyard residents made to the 19th-century whaling community, and enables Laura’s fascinating story to be told.

Nancy Cole, the museum’s former education director, led the “Girl on a Whaleship” project, which was inspired by the museum staff’s desire to create an online exhibit that would be engaging, educational and accessible from anywhere. To fund the project, Cole obtained grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities. “We were taking this little, local story,” says Cole, “the story of a little girl here who was part of a much bigger story in our nation’s history—the whole whaling industry—and through the website we were able to share it with people all over the world.”

The exhibit includes a timeline of the history of whaling, a map of whaling hotbeds and common whaling ship routes, photographs of artifacts from the Roman, and a picture gallery containing original artwork from logbooks and portraits of Laura at various ages. The gallery also displays many images depicting the whaling industry, including artists’ renditions of life aboard a whaleship.

Aboard the Roman, Laura had the responsibility of watching over her brother, Prescott, who was 2 years old when the venture began. En route, Laura’s mother, Helen Jernegan, taught her to read and write, and encouraged her to make journal entries in order to practice. In her journal, Laura may have been mimicking her father, the Roman’s captain, Jared Jernegan, since her formal writing style and precise, yet simple descriptions reflect that of a ship logbook.

On December 7, 1868, for example, Laura wrote the following in carefully drawn capital letters: “The men are boiling the blubber that makes the oil.” Three days later, she wrote of the weather and other activities she observed aboard the ship. “We had a tempest last night and a squall this morning. Papa spoke the ship Chnticleer [sic]. And reported our oil. We have 60 barrels of sperm oil.”

Thanks to Laura’s 42-page journal, museum staff were able to compile a better picture of the Roman’s endeavors. Anna Carringer, the museum’s assistant curator, says the journal’s value was apparent upon its donation to the museum. “We recognized early on how important it was,” she says, adding that a physical exhibit showcasing Laura’s journal, which preceded the online version, had been a success.

Pages from Laura Jernegan’s Journal

As the Roman’s journey—and Laura’s journal—progresses, the young writer’s sentences grow more complex, and she begins writing in cursive. On February 21, 1871, she wrote about the processing of whale blubber: “It is quite pleasant today. The men are cutting in the whales. They smell dreadfully. We got a whale that made 75 barrels. The whale’s head made 20 barrels of oil. […] I am going up on deck. The men have just begun to boil out the blubber.”

Although it could be lucrative, whaling was far from a glamorous profession, and Laura’s vivid accounts of rough weather and the stench of dying whales give just that impression. Skip Finley, director of sales and marketing for The Vineyard Gazette Media Group, explains that life aboard whaling ships could be uncomfortable and isolating. “It is an awful experience from start to finish,” says Finley. “Whalers ate rotten food and received poor treatment.” Finley, who is currently working on a book about black whaling captains, says the dangerous profession could also prove fruitless at the end of a journey. “They could see just 20 whales,” he says, “in four years.”

Ann DuCharme, the museum’s education director, utilizes the online exhibit as a teaching tool for elementary students on the Vineyard. “We love Laura,” says DuCharme. “The students love her, too. They see her as a peer. They can identify with the amateur sentence structure and the spelling errors.” Another signature of Laura’s journal is the way she signed off each entry with “Goodbye for To Day.” DuCharme notes that many students who read the journal connect with this. “Laura addresses her journal like a companion,” she says, “which seems to resonate with them.”

DuCharme says Laura’s journal is also a great resource for teaching about geography and whaling, and can help young people appreciate that their words can hold power. “I want my students to know that history is real,” she says. “Kids like them made history, and their story is important. The Vineyard is their story, and they can write their own story for others to find, just like Laura.”

To this day, several descendants of the Jernegan family reside in Edgartown, and one relative—a namesake of Laura’s—shares her taste for travel; Laura Jernegan, a 2009 graduate of Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, has worked as a Peace Corps education volunteer in Vanuatu for the past two years. “I have always been profoundly proud of the fact that I was named after Laura,” says Jernegan. “My dad took a trip to the museum when he was in first grade at Edgartown Elementary and learned about his ancestors and, at that moment, he decided to name his first daughter after her.”

Samples of different types of whale oil.

The online exhibit also features some interactive components including the ability to flip through the pages of Laura’s journal and explore various parts of the Roman. Cole, who has even shown the journal to a classroom of international students over Skype, emphasizes that the exhibit is being viewed—and Laura’s story is being shared—around the world.

Katy Fuller, the museum’s marketing manager, confirms that traffic to the online exhibit has increased steadily each year since “Girl on a Whaleship” launched in 2010. “Families and educators are learning about the site and using it from as far away as Australia, New Zealand and Japan,” Fuller says. “In just a few years, a young Vineyard girl’s diary has become internationally known.” Courtesy of the exhibit, the story of Laura—whom Cole describes as “a normal little girl who had an extraordinary opportunity”—has now traveled even further than she had during her lifetime.

Carringer adds that Laura’s story has significance to those who live and work on Martha’s Vineyard, especially since the culture of the island has been in many ways shaped by its whaling history. “People are pulled into the story in a weird and strange way,” she says. “It’s compelling and it’s a very personal thing for them.”

Describing whaling as “an industry that supported an entire nation,” Carringer is also heading a new whaling exhibit, which is set to open at the museum in April. “Whaling is an important part of the community here,” Carringer says. “It’s perennially interesting.” The new exhibit will complement the “Girl on a Whaleship” project in that it will highlight lesser-known individuals who contributed to the whaling industry.

One such story is that of Captain William A. Martin, an Edgartown native like Laura, who was a key player among Vineyard whalers. A black man who was a part of several whaling expeditions, Martin’s tale has gone widely untold, Carringer says. For the exhibit, Carringer plans to consult with Finley, who in his research has uncovered records of 60 black men who served as ship captains across the whaling industry.

Osbourne Wharf in Edgartown during the whaling era.

Researching a variety of perspectives, Carringer adds, allows historians to gain a broader idea of what life was like on whaling vessels—and can help people to relate. Much like how Laura’s journal entries tell a different version of the Roman’s story than a logbook would have, the upcoming exhibit will feature voices that are less often heard and rarely given a platform.

Echoing Carringer’s sentiments, Jernegan—Laura’s relative— encourages audiences to learn about the Vineyard’s important whaling history. “With Laura’s journal as proof,” says Jernegan, “I hope people will learn that it wasn’t just a man’s industry. It was something that shaped families and an entire society. I hope young girls learn her story and are inspired to go on adventures of their own, and I hope young boys learn her story and understand that girls can have epic adventures just like any boy.”

In March of 1871, the Roman arrived in Honolulu, Hawaii, and on May 1 of that year, Helen, Prescott and Laura left the ship to return to their home in Edgartown, the young writer taking her journal with her. Captain Jernegan continued north, until September 1871, when the ship became caught between sheets of floating ice while taking a whale on board near Alaska’s North Slope. The pressure of the ice became too much for the ship’s hull, and the Roman ultimately broke apart, sinking into the icy depths. Seven vessels came to the rescue that day, including Europa, which was captained by Edgartown’s own Thomas Mellen.

According to the online exhibit, “No log books, no charts and few records of the voyage survived the sudden sinking of the Roman.” Due to this, Laura’s journal has become even more important; her words commemorate the ship’s final journey.

After returning to Martha’s Vineyard, Laura attended public school for the first time at the age of 9, and eventually graduated from Edgartown High School in 1876. She would go on to study at both the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. She married Herbert W. Spear, the chief engineer of the United States Revenue Marine Service, and her brother Prescott, then an ordained minister, performed the ceremony. An Edgartown girl at heart, Laura moved back to the island town for good in 1912, and created sea moss artwork inspired by her whaling voyage until she died in 1947; as Carringer puts it, “she was always tied to the sea.”

Crew list for the Bark Roman, which departed New Bedford, Massachusetts in October, 1868. The form, required by the Customs House, lists each of the crew members, with their place of birth and place of residence. It also includes descriptive notes, age, height, complexion and hair color.Date: 1868

A graduate of Providence College, Sarah A. O’Brien is a freelance writer living in Boston.

To learn more about the Martha’s Vineyard Museum’s special exhibit, visit girlonawhaleship.org.

The post She wrote of oceans and whales and other tales appeared first on Cape Cod LIFE.