Postcards from Nantucket

Postcard Test No. 1

  My lifelong facination with New England, and specifically Massachusetts, has lead me to my next art adventure. I applied for and was granted an artist's resendency this July at the Nantucket Island School of Design and The Arts. I'm hoping the residency will help me explore my family history and to bring alive the many stories I've heard about summers on Nantucket. As opposed to Ellis Island, my family came through Boston. They came from Morsasco, a small hillside town in the Province of Alessandria in the Italian Region of Piedmont, and settled in Cape Cod in 1914.

  With such a short week long residency, I dedided to sketch landscapes and boats on postcard paper and send them to friends and family. The goal upon my return is to use these postcard sketches as a jumping point for making a series of 17 x 22"" gouache and graphite paintings. Here is a sample of a postcard sketch I made, inspired by Charles Green Shaw's "Fishing Fleet, Nantucket" 1955.

We shall see what the island has in store for me. In the meantime, I have been enjoying creating these tests and am happy with the combination of gouache and graphite. I so look forward to seeing the color palate of this New England Island in person and to experience familial summers in the Atlantic.

Be sure to keep your eye on your mailbox, you just may get a postcard from Nantucket...

Julie Green

June 15, 2024