The tradition of Studying Light on the Beach of Provincetown Continues
In the Summer of 2010 John Ebersberger joined several former students of Henry Hensche and a handfull of Provincetown residents in a studio off Route 6, just outside of Provincetown, MA. The goal of the meeting was to pull together the talents of the group and reestablish the Cape School of Art and continue the teachings of Charles Webster Hawthorne and Henry Hensche.
This summer John taught "Portrait and Figure Painting on the Beach" on the same Provincetown beaach where Hawthorne first taught his "mud head" approach to impressionist color over 100 years ago. (Right, two Ebersberger students working on "mud head" color studies)
In the early part of the 20th century Charles Webster Hawthorne established one of the first outdoor painting schools in the counry, the Cape Cod School of Art, in Provincetown, MA. He challenged his students to capture the quality of light they observed on the young Porteguese children of the town. He had the children pose on barrels with their backs to the sun and only allowed his students to apply paint with putty knives. The only way to make a beautiful painting was to get the color right. (Below right, a mud head from Hawthorne's class, 1922)
(Above) While in Provincetown John is taking advantage of the light and beautiful models available. He has always been dedicated to intergrating an understanding of the figure with his study of light and color.
