Motif #1

Nikon D700, Nikon 28-70mm f/2.8, 56mm, f/22, ISO 100, HDR, 9 exposures

This is the second installment in the Rockport series. This fishing shack is named Motif #1. Supposedly, this is America’s most often painted building.  The shack was originall buit in the 1840′s, but it was destroyed in the Blizzard of 1978. An exact replica was built in the same year.

This building received its name in an impulsive exclamation by Lester Hornby. This illustrator and etcher taught in Paris in the winter; his pupils, in the French manner, drew certain standard subjects or motifs. During his summer seasons in Rockport, Hornby noted that many pupils chose the venerable, dilapidated shed on the edge of the inner harbor. Its prominence and its simple but interesting proportions made it a natural model for sketches and paintings, good and bad. One day when a student brought for criticism a pencil drawing of the house, Hornby exclaimed, “What-Motif No 1 again!” It has been that ever since.”

– Rockport Sketch Book, by John L. Cooley