Gloucester Harbor in 1952

A Photo of Gloucester Harbor in 1952

This old picture turned up in a box of memorabilia that my mom had been saving.  I don't know who took it, or why an edge has been cut off, but there is a date on the reverse: 1952.  Wow.  I was two years old then.  Mayo did not work from photographs - in my memory he always gone in the summer mornings, off to "paint the boats."  Perhaps he used this image as a sort of compositional guide or detail guide.  Who knows?

For me this image evokes a constellation sounds, smells and visual memories.  Gorton's Fish factory was near where this was taken, so the smell of fish was always strongly in the air.  As a young child, about the only times I was taken to Gloucester were on shopping and errand expeditions.  We were often there around mid-day, when the noon whistle at the factory sounded.  Do you remember how loud that was?

Pigeon Cove, Circa 1953

My parents rented a little house in Pigeon Cove, on Cape Ann in Massachusetts, for a summer or two.
From the old photos I have of myself and my brother playing in the yard, with boats at anchor behind us, I'd guess it was the summers of 1952 and 1953.  Dad must have loved walking out the door to find these wonderful scenes of granite seawalls, fishing boats and dinghies.

Dad was well known in the region for his bold watercolors that recorded yet abstracted the waterfront scenes of Cape Ann.   At the time, not many New England painters had adapted the lessons of Cubism, of John Marin and Andrew Dasburg, but Dad was always pushing forward into new styles and concepts.  This particular painting was done quickly, almost like a sketch, but fully captures the brilliant light and maritime character of the Cape.