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Past Perfect: The Landscapes
of Thomas B. Higham
May 9 through June 25, 2006
(above:
Thomas B. Higham, "Northwest Wind, Menemsha" 2001, acrylic on
panel)
"Past Perfect:
The Landscapes of Thomas B. Higham" will open May 9 and run through
June 25, 2005 at the Cahoon Museum of American Art. As a 
retrospective, this exhibition of more than 30 works looks
back on more than two decades of a well-known Cape artist's career. Thomas
Higham's paintings themselves look back in time, giving us glimpses of an
unspoiled Cape Cod, such as the artist remembers from growing up in Osterville
in the '50s and '60s. (right: Thomas B. Higham, "Wing Fort"
1999, acrylic on panel)
Higham's acrylic and watercolor scenes belong to the here
and now, but contain vintage buildings and boats and pristine shorelines,
marshes and meadows. More often than not, Higham has found ample inspiration
within his native Barnstable's town lines. "Past Perfect" includes
paintings of the Centerville and Bumps rivers, Ropes' Barn in Cotuit, West
Parish Church and the old Jenkins' farm in West Barnstable, Crosby Yacht
Yard in Osterville, Maraspin Creek in Barnstable village and a cranberry
bog in Marstons Mills. From points slightly farther afield are views of
a Colonial house on Route 6A in Yarmouthport, the Wing Fort House in Sandwich
and the harbor at Menemsha.
"Tom has a special talent for bringing back the way
Cape Cod never was, but we all think it used to be," says Julian Baird,
the president of Tree's Place Gallery in Orleans, which has carried Higham's
work for 20 years. "The sun is shining at exactly the right angle.
The flowers are open just the right amount. Everything is perfect, but it
doesn't look hokey."
Higham saw an exhibition of Andrew Wyeth's work at the
Museum of Fine Arts in Boston while he was in high school and immediately
thought, "This is how I respond to the world." Like Wyeth, he
employs a pared-down Yankee realism that quietly draws us into a scene,
making us imagine how it feels, smells and sounds, as well as how it looks.
With a silvery light, subtle tonalities and uncompromising honesty, he creates
a barebones visual poetry that stirs feelings of nostalgia. Higham's style
-- like the subjects he chooses to paint -- has changed little over the
years. "Past Perfect" is a retrospective marked more by consistency
than change.
Higham, who is distantly related to Harwich artist Charles
D. Cahoon (1861-1951), has never had trouble selling his work. While still
in high school, he had his first show at Osterville Free Library and sold
three paintings. Later, he majored in painting at the Swain School of Design
in New Bedford, receiving his BFA in 1977. For a few years, he made his
living primarily through woodworking and carpentry, but around 1993 committed
himself to painting.
Julian Baird recalls that Higham's first two shows at Tree's
Place sold out. One year, when the artist asked the gallery to refrain from
pre-selling his work, Baird found 45 to 50 people waiting by the front door
when he and his wife arrived to open the gallery on the first morning of
Higham's show. They gave people numbers and let them in one at a time, with
only one purchase allowed per customer. "When we got through with that
process, all but one painting had sold, and we sold it the night of the
opening," Baird recalls.
(above: Thomas B. Higham, "Remembrance of Things Past"
1998, acrylic on panel)
Opening reception
An opening reception will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday,
May 12. Refreshments will be served, and Noel Tipton will provide live music
on piano.
Tuesday Talk
Artist Thomas B. Higham will give a gallery talk at 11
a.m. May 16.
The "Past Perfect" exhibition is sponsored by
Tree's Place gallery.
Wall text for the exhibit
- Barns at Jenkins' Farm 1999
-
- Thomas B. Higham
- Acrylic on panel
-
- PRIVATE COLLECTION
-
- I love this beautiful Cape farm. What you don't see is the real work
of this farm the bogs, crimsonly supine just around the corner. The
Jenkins should be given a tax break for beautifying our town with this
jewel of West Barnstable. Stand in any spot, close your eyes and spin around.
Open your lids, and there's beauty just asking to be painted. What artist
could ask for more? Thank you, thank you!
-
- Barton's Barn 1999
-
- Thomas B. Higham
- Watercolor on paper
-
- COLLECTION OF CHRISTINE BEDNARK
-
- The brown grays, the deep green doors and cupola, faded a bit. The
dull green of overgrown cedars. All bring me back to some mysterious earlier
Cape. What was the life lived here? What mysteries lie within?
-
- Blue Blue Crab c. 1998
-
- Thomas B. Higham
- Watercolor on paper
-
- COLLECTION OF THE ARTIST
-
- To paint in watercolor you need a strategy. Once you have covered the
white of the paper, there's no going back. So, when your subject is a light
color on a dark background, you paint what is not the object. In
this picture I needed to reserve the white paper of the crab, in order
that the blue of the claw would shine forth from the clean white paper.
Blue is my favorite color. To me, there is something noble about this creature,
even in death. Isn't it strange that something so fierce as this claw should
be such a heavenly color?
-
- Boat Meadow 2001
-
- Thomas B. Higham
- Acrylic on panel
-
- PRIVATE COLLECTION
-
- The Boathouse 2006
-
- Thomas B. Higham
- Acrylic on panel
-
- COLLECTION OF THE ARTIST
-
- Bump's River, October 1987
-
- Thomas B. Higham
- Acrylic on panel
-
- COLLECTION OF CLARE PUTNAM
-
- This river valley and marsh are ever-changing at times softly
lit and sentimental, at others darkly dramatic. I've driven over the old
bridge many, many times and it's never the same. I went for The Drama in
this painting. Soft and beautiful drama, but do not err: This is a battlefield,
everything fighting for its life. Maybe gaining, maybe losing against the
scourings of the tide, the winds and the acts of man.
-
- Cotuit Senior 1984
-
- Thomas B. Higham
- Acrylic on panel
-
- COLLECTION OF JAMES HINKLE AND ROY HAMMER
-
- I love the peacefulness of the after-season, of course. The Senior
waits patiently perhaps there will be a few Indian summer sails left before
haul-out time? There is an echo between the curiously sloped mast and the
perfectly upright church spire.
-
- Jim Hinkle, who owns the painting, wrote the following:
-
- On the reverse side of the painting is the inscription: "Bought
of the artist, Thomas B. Higham, by James Hinkle, November, 1984."
That following summer, on a visit to Lower Cape art galleries, I showed
the painting to Julian Baird of Tree's Place, Orleans. The next day I called
Tom to tell him he might be receiving a call from Julian. Tom responded,
"He's already called me," and the rest is history.
-
- Dillingham House 1992
-
- Thomas B. Higham
- Acrylic on panel
-
- COLLECTION OF JOHN AND NANCY TAFT
-
- Drifting In 1988
-
- Thomas B. Higham
- Acrylic on panel
-
- COLLECTION OF ELISABETH EATON CLARK
-
- Mike Powers was a shellfisherman. No longer with us, I would see him
often at the end of Bay Street, coming and going with his orange baskets
of quahogs. This was a particularly beautiful late July day with a gentle
breeze. Engine hauled up and booted foot over the side of the boat, he
was ready to hop out, haul up and tote another basket of quahogs up to
his battle-scarred truck.
-
- 18 Bay Street 1986
-
- Thomas B. Higham
- Acrylic on panel
-
- COLLECTION OF JULIAN AND ELAINE BAIRD
-
- I lived in this ancient half-Cape for many summers in the 1970s. The
floors had a roll to them like an ocean swell. The mice held the winter
lease. The stairs were so steep you could grab the railings and swing down
in one go in your twenties at least. Since then the house has been
restored by Bill and Heather Wright. Bill's an excellent carpenter. Don't
tell Bill, but I miss that old roll to the floors.
-
- Friend Ship c. 1995
-
- Thomas B. Higham
- Acrylic on panel
-
- COLLECTION OF THE ARTIST
-
- Harvest in the Mills c. 1999
-
- Thomas B. Higham
- Acrylic on panel
-
- COLLECTION OF CHARLOTTE AND BRAD LYNCH
-
- Her Room c. 1991
-
- Thomas B. Higham
- Acrylic on panel
-
- COLLECTION OF THE ARTIST
-
- My good friend Lis Clark's living room in her 1820 Osterville home.
On the chair, a compass rose. On the wall, sailboats. The sea is not far
away, but I have brought it to her doorstep. She is a lifelong sailor,
in love with the sweep of the tides and a good sailing breeze.
-
- Horace Crosby Boat Shop c. 1997
-
- Thomas B. Higham
- Acrylic on panel
-
- COLLECTION OF THE ARTIST
-
- In the 1800s, many small boat shops dotted the shores of Osterville.
They were owned individually by different Crosbys. This was Horace's shop,
which stood or rather leaned at the water's edge, where Bill
Koch's Nauticus Marina now is. Today, it's been moved up the hill and is
part of the nautical display at the Osterville Historical Society.
-
- Island Church
-
- Thomas B. Higham
- Acrylic on panel
-
- PRIVATE COLLECTION
-
- Jenkins' Place c. 2000
-
- Thomas B. Higham
- Acrylic on panel
-
- PRIVATE COLLECTION
-
- This is not one of those wishing wells you can buy at the Mill Store.
It's the real McCoy, surviving from when? You'd grasp the chain or rope
and hand the bucket down to the well. The weight of the sapling butt would
then do you the kindness of leveraging it up. Just down the hill, the open
pond. Up here, hidden and cool, the potable.
-
- Looking Through 1969
-
- Thomas B. Higham
- Acrylic on panel
-
- COLLECTION OF ELISABETH EATON CLARK
-
- Maraspin Creek 1994
-
- Thomas B. Higham
- Watercolor on paper
-
- PRIVATE COLLECTION
- Marstons Mills Spring 1986
-
- Thomas B. Higham
- Acrylic on panel
-
- COLLECTION OF J. FORD O'CONNOR
-
- Many times I drove past this homestead on my way to the wilds of the
Mills. Finally, the light was just right, bringing out an atmosphere of
age and settledness. To the birds, the house could be gone, but please
stand the eloquent tree.
-
- Menemsha 2006
-
- Thomas B. Higham
- Acrylic on panel
-
- COLLECTION OF THE ARTIST
-
- I would call this the classic Menemsha view: a fishing shack, junk-covered
pier, fishing boat and a view through the jetties out to Menemsha Bight.
All under a raking late afternoon light. In this piece, I repainted the
sky four or five times. Clouds are difficult to paint. They must have structure
and logic in their arrangement, must not detract from the composition,
yet need to have a weight and emphasis of their own, and, yet again, must
retain a moving, ephemeral quality. A difficult thing. Often you'll get
a look more akin to a flying potato, or lump of concrete. Less is more,
but too much less is not enough!
-
- Midwinter 1985
-
- Thomas B. Higham
- Acrylic on panel
-
- COLLECTION OF JOHN AND NANCY TAFT
-
- Moonrise, Centerville River 1990
-
- Thomas B. Higham
- Acrylic on panel
-
- COLLECTION OF CHRISTOPHER H. BABCOCK
-
- North Wind, Menemsha 2000
-
- Thomas B. Higham
- Acrylic on panel
-
- PRIVATE COLLECTION
-
- Menemsha, on Martha's Vineyard. This open lobster boat is probably
at the end of a well-lived career. But I can feel her still, knifing through
a salt-tinged chop out on Menemsha Bight.
-
- Northwest Wind, Menemsha 2001
-
- Thomas B. Higham
- Acrylic on panel
-
- COLLECTION OF MARY-ETTA SCHNEIDER AND JOHN BEARDSLEY
-
- The Patriot, Yarmouthport
-
- Thomas B. Higham
- Acrylic on panel
-
- COLLECTION OF JOHN AND NANCY TAFT
-
- This old house is probably Artist Motif #1 in Yarmouthport. It's been
painted countless times by many a fine Cape artist. I, too, am guilty
it's irresistible. And when you tire, just a skip across the street brought
you to Jack's Outback for a cup of "cawfee" and a little delightful
abuse from Jack, if you were lucky.
-
- Provincetown Pickets 1999
-
- Thomas B. Higham
- Acrylic on panel
-
- PRIVATE COLLECTION
-
- This is the home of the well-known Provincetown artist John Dowd. Simple,
classic, white with green shutters; a few shadows, a few roses, a white
picket fence, much like his paintings.
-
- Rainbow Roof 1997
-
- Thomas B. Higham
- Acrylic on panel
-
- COLLECTION OF DAVID H. AND CAROLYN P. McNAUGHTON
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- Remembrance of Things Past 1998
-
- Thomas B. Higham
- Acrylic on panel
-
- COLLECTION OF PEGGY AND GILL WOODS
-
- Whose door is this? What does this ribbon fresh, but soon to
fade, blowing in the sea breeze mean? Could it be a lover's token?
How many knocks on this door till the lost sailor takes off his sea boots
at the hearth again?
-
- Road to the Bog 1987
-
- Thomas B. Higham
- Acrylic on panel
-
- PRIVATE COLLECTION
-
- This road could be anywhere on Cape Cod. Cordwood Road in Cotuit where?
When I was a teen, my friend Jim Leonard would take me on terror rides
on these roads, of which there were many in those days. His speedy driving
still terrifies me.
-
- Ropes' Barn 2002
-
- Thomas B. Higham
- Acrylic on panel
-
- COLLECTION OF THE GREENWOOD FAMILY
-
- Still there, a shingle or two dropped since the last drive past. Still
the field (most of it) and still the dry, but oceanic light of Cotuit.
What a boon to the roving Cape artist. Sadly, too few of such places remain.
-
- Slight Breeze, July c. 2002
-
- Thomas B. Higham