A recent email from someone went like this:

Greetings Ms. Shaver,

“While  rummaging thru a flea market today my attention was caught by the attached watercolor painting. I was drawn by the American flag and the sheer Americana of the painting, so I bought it. After looking at it for a bit I decided to Google the Artist name…yours of course. I was delighted but not surprised to find that the Artist was so well-known and accomplished. I have also attached a photo of the back of this painting in what appears to be an unfinished work.

I decided that I needed to re-share this painting with you. Are there any specifics about the painting that you would care to share with me?

Route 6A Market Watercolor Front

Route 6A Watercolor back

I will be getting together with an artist friend of mine and she will assist me in selecting an appropriate frame and mounting for my new find. I can’t help but to imagine the Andy Griffith Show and a simpler more wholesome lifestyle than we enjoy today when I look at this painting.”

In the early 1980’s I lived on Cape Cod for 5 years, painting and exhibiting in the medium of watercolor.  The Cape was beautiful in all four of her seasons. I enjoyed the beaches, cranberry bogs, old turn of the century cottages and fishing villages. On occasional trips to the Islands of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard I would bring my paints and set up to paint anywhere I found myself.  When I glance back at the years I spent on Cape Cod it looks to me now to be a much more simple and wholesome time of my life, but I know that is because it is through the mist filled eyes of my memory.  I am very thankful for the time I spent exploring and recording through my paintings my impressions of my youthful life on the Cape and Islands long ago. Perhaps I will return to once again recall that time. But no, I think about all the other unique unexplored places yet to discover.  I am Columbus once again. I wonder if more of my paintings will be found in flea markets years after I have rode my bicycle down a lane with my paints for the last time. I wish I could stand and watch the person who dusts it off and says, I wonder what became of this artist. Google, now you can know!

Photo of the Artist circa 1983 on Nantucket Island