Clifton Taylor Notes on “Brewster Street”
When I painted this, I was staying in Provincetown, MA, on Cape Cod, studying painting at the Cape School of Art, and painting madly every day. I stayed on Brewster Street, on the east end of town.
Established in 1899 by the great American impressionist and teacher Charles Hawthorne, The Cape School is the storied institution of plein air, impressionist painting on Cape Cod and in America. I have learned much about painting through classes at this institution, especially through my teacher, Mary Giammarino.
I didn’t know it when we found this place to stay, but Mary told me that the original school was on this street, and it turns out that we faced some of the original buildings, now long sold and turned back into private houses.
Brewster Street has meaning to me as a place where I began to find my voice as a painter and meaning as the place where so many artists from the past 125 years searched for their own voices as well. History, learning, lineage, inspiration, and discovery are all embedded in this painting for me in cascades of light, color, memory, and gratitude.