Shortly before we left for a summer trip to Cape Cod my aunt commissioned me to do a large 3 x 4 foot painting for her new home. She had recently moved from coastal South Carolina to land-locked Missouri, so her request was that I paint a light house. Cape Cod having plenty of lighthouses, I used the trip as an opportunity to do a study for the larger painting.

Highland Light is a popular tourist destination in the middle of a golf course in Truro, Massachusetts. I chose sunset as a time to paint because the tours of the lighthouse would be over for the day, the golfers would be going home for dinner, and I would have fewer distractions from passers by. However, there were still plenty of tourists coming by in the evening while I worked, many of whom thought I was put there by the local tourist board to answer questions.

I was fully aware that by painting a lighthouse I was stepping into the dangerous territory of kitsch — especially in painting one at sunset. As I set up my easel I took a deep breath and said to myself, “Think Edward Hopper, not Thomas Kincaid.” I am happy with the study and feel that it is successful in and of itself. The larger work was a horizontal composition showing more of the house and surrounding landscape.