There are few places on Martha's Vineyard that offer the visual and diverse rewards that one finds at Farm Neck, even for someone who doesn't golf. But for a painter, it means dividends in color, light, composition and atmosphere that charge the process of capturing the images in oil.
I walked or rode around the course in every season, in a variety of weather at every time of day, yet feel I was able to record just a bit of its spirit and substance. It reminds me of when I was a student, drawing the casts of classical sculptures that line the cavernous halls of Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. I spent an entire year rendering countless drawings, and in the end I felt there remained a vast reserve of inspiration I hadn't even begun to tap!
The additional benefits this project has given me is a greater interest in pure landscape, which I am now pursuing more vigorously with paintings I am doing in Nova Scotia.
Jeanne Staples began visiting the Vineyard as a teenager and has lived here for the past six years with her husband, two children, and their Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Miguelito. She is represented by the Gardner Colby Gallery in Edgartown.