Quilting a message

“Protecting the Oceans that God Has Created’’ is a narrative quilt made by members of the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association in collaboration with Clara Wainwright in 1998. It can be seen at the Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, through Sept. 26. It’s on loan from the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association.

Ending the day in Gloucester

“Ten Pound Island {in Gloucester, Mass.} at Sunset” (1851) (oil on panel), by Fitz Henry Lane (1804-1865), at the Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester.

A 'mystical and magical' land on Cape Ann

 “Red Landscape #1, Dogtown,” (acrylic on canvas), by Ed Touchette, at the Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, Mass. Gift of the artist, given in memory of Dana Todd.

The museum notes:

“The 3,000-acre swath of boulder-strewn land that makes up the center of Cape Ann has been known as Dogtown for generations. Since the disappearance of the last glacier, the area has undergone many iterations—from inhabitation by Native American groups and subsequently Colonial settlers to a sparse population of those on the fringes of society—and a slow but steady reversal of pasture lands back to the woodlands that are experienced in this protected green space today. Despite these changes, Dogtown remains mystical and magical, a sanctuary from its busier surroundings, a place for quiet thought and a reunion with nature. Read on as we explore its history and impact as a vast expanse of land that endures as both a resource and a challenge for the people of Cape Ann.’’ 

Love at the Cape Ann Museum

Above, Valentine shadow boxes from the archives of the Cape Ann Art Museum, Gloucester, Mass. Below, also at the museum, Sailors' Valentine, 1800-1840 (shell and glass on wood)

After a nuclear explosion

“Moonlight Scene” (oil on board), by Allan Freelon (1895-1960), at the Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, Mass.

Kindly light

“Eastern Point Light, 1940s’’ (watercolor on paper), by Alfred Levitt (1894-2000) at the Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, Mass.

Fresnel Lens for lighthouses originally designed by Augustine Jean Fresnel and displayed at the Cape Ann Museum.

Pre-turbine wind power

“Brig ‘Cadet’ in Gloucester Harbor,’’ late 1840s (oil on canvas), by Fitz Henry Lane (1804-1865), Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester. (Gift of Isabel Babson Lane).

Mellow day on Cape Ann

“Head of Goose Cove, Annisquam” (oil on canvas, circa 1910), by George L. Noyes (1864-1954), at the Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester.

Its attractions were clear

Map of Gloucester Harbor (“le beau port’) drawn as a result of an exploratory voyage along the New England coast led by Samuel de Champlain (ca. 1567-1635). This was originally printed in Paris in 1613. It’s now at the Cape Ann Museum, in Gloucester.

And October is apple month

“Still Life with Apples” (oil on canvas) by William Meyerowitz (1896-1981) at the Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, Mass.

This from the museum:

"Who could know better than the people of Cape Ann how to cook fish?" That's how the 1958 Cape Ann Cook Book begins, and at the Cape Ann Museum, we couldn't agree more. In CAM Connects we take a look at not only the fish that made Gloucester famous, but the food that inspired artists and residents in our area to share their takes! We also tour an early 19th Century kitchen and delve into the history of Victorian trade cards and their relationship to food.’’

New England’s granite industry

“Babson Farm Quarry, Halibut Point” (Rockport), (1913), (oil on canvas), by Leon Kroll (1884-1974), in the James Collection, Promised Gift of Janet & William Ellery James to the Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester.

The museum commented:

“For 100 years, from the early 1830s through 1930, the granite-quarrying industry was a crucial part of Cape Ann’s economy. First undertaken on a small scale with individuals opening up ‘motions’ to harvest stone for their own projects, by the end of the 19th Century, quarrying had grown into a big business, employing hundreds of men and boys (many of them immigrants from around the world), and keeping a fleet of vessels busy transporting stone up and down the Atlantic Seaboard. While granite was taken from the earth in all different sizes and shapes, Cape Ann specialized in the conversion of that granite into paving blocks that were used to finish roads and streets.’’

Editor’s note: New England had granite quarries in all six states. After they were abandoned and water rose in them, many became popular swimming holes. Sadly more than a few people, especially teens, died in them by drowning or hitting their heads on the rocks. And some can have toxic materials in them.

And crossing fingers

“Blessing the Fleet,’’ (oil on panel), by Philip Riesman (1904-1992) in the Collection of the Cape Ann Museum. Gloucester.

Getting to it in Gloucester

This painting, by Emile A. Gruppe (1896-1978), is owned by VNA Care and is now at the Cape Ann Museum, in Gloucester. It shows a young nurse standing at the top of the stairway that joins Friend and Main Streets in Gloucester.

"A father and son's journey in paint'

(left) Tom Nicholas, “Late Autumn, Rockport Harbor’’’ (oil on canvas, private collection), by Tom Nicholas); right, “Old Harbor, Gloucester’’ (oil on canvas; private collection), by T.M. Nicholas, in the show “Tom and T.M. Nicholas: A Father and Son’s Journey in Paint,’’ through April 12 at the Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester.

“Man at the Wheel,’’ Fisherman's Memorial Cenotaph, in Gloucester, a major fishing port for hundreds of years

Pre-Coppertone

“Children on the Beach” (oil on canvas, 1873), by Winslow Homer, in the show “Homer at the Beach: A Marine Painter’s Journey,’’ at the Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, Mass., Aug. 3-Dec 1.

Through the green

One of Esther Pullman’s large-scale panoramic photographs in her show “Green Places/Green Spaces/Greenhouses,’’ at the Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, through June 16. The museum says: “Shot over a 20-year period, these large-scale panoramic photographs of greenhouses explore such universal themes as the passage of time, the cycle of the seasons, death and rebirth, and have also unavoidably become a metaphor for our threatened planet.’’

'Snow Flurry'

“Snow Flurry’’ (linoleum block print), by Mary Maletskos (1918-1983), in the Folly Cove Designers Collection, at the Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, Mass.

Enjoying the violence

"Northeaster #2, Bass Rocks'' {in Gloucester, Mass.}  (oil on board), by Gifford Beal (1930), in the show "Rock Bound: Painting the American Scene on Cape Ann and Along the Shore,'' at the Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester,  June 3-Oct. 29.

Track to the sea

"Marine Railways, 2014'' (acrylic on canvas), by Charles Movalli (1945–2016), in the show "Charles Movalli; Cape Ann & Beyond,'' at the  Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, Mass. March 4-May 21.

Working at a protein factory

Franklyn E. Goucher, an Essex, Mass., clammer, digging on a  sand flat in 1978, in the coming show "Kodachrome Memory: Nathan Benn's North Shore, 1978'' at the Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, Mass., Dec. 27-Feb. 19. This show will display 30 photos taken by Mr. Benn while on assignment by the National Geographic Magazine on the North Shore in 1978. The National Geographic article was entitled ''Harboring Old  Ways''.