A GOOD AGE: 'Fresh air' artists thriving on South Shore

COHASSET -- They look like sculptures, scattered around the harbor on a foggy July morning. Fifteen women, artists from across the South Shore, have set up their easels on the hill overlooking the water. Deep in concentration, they work on watercolors, pastels and acrylics. They call themselves the Tuesday Painters.Some were art teachers, and some still are. Several are professional artists; the others accomplished amateurs. A few took this up in retirement and have flourished. As you wander from easel to easel and look over their shoulders, each one says what a great group this is -- everyone so supportive.At the end of the morning, after three hours of painting, they gather in a circle for the group critique.Kathy McGee of Scituate has been working on an acrylic of The Glades -- a marsh and ocean scene that she started the week before on location. As she puts her unfinished painting up on the easel, several women give an appreciative "Ahhhh!" Then come the comments -- fast, friendly, pointed."You've got to calm that green down," says Tina Watson of Cohasset. "Too bright!" agrees another. A decisive "You got to get rid of that color!" from Watson. More talk and good-natured laughter as McGee says, "I mixed it myself!" The front of the painting is beautiful," says Betty Rogers of Marshfield. "I love the rocks in there," from Jane Flavell Collins of Duxbury.McGee takes it all in stride. "You learn a lot from the critiques," she says later. "It is really done to help you to finish your paintings. We laugh a lot and feelings don't get hurt."The group was started nine years ago by Watson, 57, and others taking a watercolor class at the South Shore Art Center in Cohasset. When the teacher, Pat McCarthy of Scituate, could not continue, members continued meeting on their own. They rent a room at the Art Center but in good weather work outdoors -- plein air painting. Their favorite locations are coastal, from Hull to Kingston -- harbors, marshes, the North River in Marshfield."It was sort of a spur-of-the-moment thing, the group, and then it just took off," " says Watson. "We liked working together and we get new ideas.""Wherever we go, there is always something different -- how the color changes from season to season," says Claire O'Callaghan of Cohasset, 66. "And everybody loves the critiques. "I heard about the group from Jane Flavell Collins, a well-known landscape painter and courtroom artist. "This isn't just some retired dilettantes out for fresh air," she wrote in an e-mail. "We are committed and competitive, and we submit to the many art shows throughout the region. And sometimes we win."The group has had shows at the South Shore Art Center, the South Shore Natural Science Center, and the Cohasset town library."You don't hold anything back -- we are very honest and sincere, but it is not meant as critical but as helpful -- so there is never any bad feelings about the strong remarks," Collins said. "This is a great learning experience. And every week, no matter where we are, we always have lunch."The members also take occasional trips together to special gallery shows or museum exhibits in Boston or Salem -- sometimes by limousine.Betty Rogers of Marshfield stresses the friendships that develop."We know about each others lives, talk about the issues that come up," she says. Members support each other through medical and family crises. They celebrate birthdays, holidays, special accomplishments.The Tuesday Painters have no openings -- with more than 15, the group would become unwieldy -- but they encourage others to form similar groups.Once they join, members tend to stay. Yvette Rattenbury, 67, of Cohasset, retired secretary to the Cohasset police chief, jumped at the invitation to join several years ago. Years ago as a high school senior, she had been accepted to the Mass. College of Art, but she also got a full scholarship to a Boston secretarial school and took that instead -- it was more practical."Now the art group fulfills an ambition I've had all my life to be creative," she says.Barbara Walsh, 65, of Canton graduated from the Mass. College of Art in 1992 as an older student. She describes painting as her lifeblood. Working on her harbor scene, she says, "I want to keep honing my skills and I plan to do this until I drop -- hopefully at the easel."Reporter Sue Scheible can be reached at 617-786-7044, by mail at The Patriot Ledger, Box 699159, Quincy, MA 02269-9159 or e-mail at sscheible@ledger.com.

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Uploaded: July 31, 2007 at 3:59 pm
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