My Long History with the Pamet River in Truro, MA- Edward Hopper Country

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Philip Koch, Bright October Sun, oil on canvas, 
36 x 54 inches, 2019

All of us have places that somehow seem to have grabbed a hold of us. One of mine is the area near the mouth of the little Pamet River in Truro on Cape Cod. The above just completed painting based on this place has a long history. It stems from 1983 during my very first residency in Edward Hopper's studio (that lies just beyond the dark far hill in the painting).

Here's the smaller oil I worked from-



Philip Koch, Bright October Sun, oil on panel, 14 x 21 
inches, 2019


I had begun this smaller oil on the fall 1983 trip to the Hopper studio. Shortly after arriving I explored the mouth of the Pamet and set up my French easel there in front of my favorite view. This is what came back home to my studio from that trip.

Philip Koch, Pamet River, South Truro, oil on panel,
14 x 21 inches, 1983


While happy with the painting I came to feel the one huge sand dune looked somehow lonely. I had a persistent itch to try to do something else with it. Several times over the years I would adjust the colors to be more intense and then take them back down again to their original level as the changes didn't feel quite right.

One thing that intrigues me about Edward Hopper in the second half of his career was the way he tended to paint more and more from his imagination. Perhaps with that in mind it hit me to overlap a second major dune over my original sand dune. Really liked the possibilities that opened up (and between you and me I don't think the big dune minds sharing the stage).

Just for comparison, here's a watercolor Edward Hopper did of the Pamet River from a vantage point less than 100 yards from where I made my oil. Hopper's view was looking out to the west toward where the Pamet empties into Cape Cod Bay. My painting turns and looks inland toward the south.

Edward Hopper- Mouth of the Pamet River- Full Tide,
watercolor, 1937

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