Edward Hopper's summer paintings

Edward Hopper is well known for his urban scenes depicting isolated figures in diners and hotel rooms which came to encapsulate modern American life in the mid-twentieth century. He and his wife Jo would escape the city and summer in South Truro on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where they would take trips out to find new material to paint.

The paintings he produced in the New England region showed another side of his work. There really is fresh air in these paintings. And the sunlight is glorious.

"Maybe I am not very human. What I wanted to do was to paint sunlight on the side of a house."

- Edward Hopper

A Roar And Then Silence

When I was in my early teens, I was fortunate enough to be introduced to a group of people who went on to be some of the greatest friends anyone could ask for. As we got older we would have house parties at weekends and drink… too much… like most teenagers. I loved these guys. The next morning I’d get home to my parents' house, which was on a hill with the back garden spilling into the woods behind, still carrying the effects of the night before. It was only in the following evening (usually a Saturday) that I would start reflecting on the previous night. And I’d get the biggest feeling of loneliness that I’ve ever felt. To spend an incredible time with close friends and then be alone with only the sounds of the nature to keep me company. This was pre-mobile phones and internet so you could only contact each other through land line phones… which we hardly ever did.

I used to climb this tree that was at the end of the garden… just to get that feeling of being free and in open space… in the air. I think I was trying to combat the suffocating feeling of being alone indoors.

I miss those days.