Artists embrace gray skies during eighth annual Wet Paint
Christine Mathieu holds up one of the three paintings she painted during the eighth annual Wet Paint. Photos by Abby Van Selous
Setting up shop on Knowles Beach.
Rochelle Pettenati's work in progress of Knowles Reserve.
Some chose to paint on Apponagansett Beach.
Vania's landscape painting of Knowles Reserve.
Not all stayed in Padanaram Village to paint.
Landscape paintings on display in the Cultural Center.
Some painted the sailboats in the harbor while others chose to paint the bridge.
Christine Mathieu holds up one of the three paintings she painted during the eighth annual Wet Paint. Photos by Abby Van Selous
Setting up shop on Knowles Beach.
Rochelle Pettenati's work in progress of Knowles Reserve.
Some chose to paint on Apponagansett Beach.
Vania's landscape painting of Knowles Reserve.
Not all stayed in Padanaram Village to paint.
Landscape paintings on display in the Cultural Center.
Some painted the sailboats in the harbor while others chose to paint the bridge.
Scattered around Dartmouth, artists set up their easels, some using their car trunks as cover from rainy weather and others setting up umbrellas.
On Saturday, Aug. 22, around 36 artists took part in the Dartmouth Cultural Center’s eighth annual Wet Paint event.
Some painted salt marshes and views of the Padanaram Bridge while others painted on Apponagansett Beach or chose to paint buildings such as the Cultural Center.
Wet Paint is an “en plein air” event, meaning that the artists paint something in their surroundings while outdoors rather than in a studio.
Christine Mathieu of Providence was out painting along Smith Neck Road near Knowles Beach, originally positioned under the cover of her car’s trunk door.
“I wanted to find a sport where I could just sit over there and paint from the van,” she said, noting that she uses water soluble oil paint, which isn’t good in the rain.
Mathieu, who has participated in Wet Paint before, painted three pieces Saturday and said she preferred the overcast sky, stating, “there’s no shadows, but there’s a lot of color.”
Mathieu started out as a studio painter but started painting outdoors after attending one of the Westport Art Group’s summer shows and found it interesting.
Rochelle Pettenati of Westport and Vania of Fall River also chose to paint near Knowles Beach, but rather than facing the bay they focused their attention on Knowles Reserve.
“We didn’t know how the day was going to turn out,” Vania said. “It was starting to rain when we first got here, so we decided to work out of the back of our cars.”
She noted that they both chose to paint near Knowles Reserve because it’s one of the areas where it’s possible to park and use your car as part of your workstation, especially on gray, overcast days like Saturday that threatened rain.
Pettenati said that the gray weather did also help with having a consistent sky colorization throughout the day.
“Our colors haven’t changed in the landscape very much because it hasn’t gotten really bright and really dark,” she said. “It’s pretty constant, which is good.”
Artists could sign in for the day as early as 8:30 a.m. and had until around 4:30 p.m. to finish their paintings, at which time their artwork is judged, put on display at the Dartmouth Cultural Center and can go up for sale.
Vania said that having limited time to paint “pushes you to grow.”
She attributed this growth to the time constraints, the changing of the sky and uncertain weather.
“Everything is moving,” she noted of the day. “Nothing stops you.”
