I visited the Dallas Museum of Art and analyzed the painting Eastport, and Passamaquoddy Bay by Thomas Chambers. This painting is an illustration of the town of Eastport, Maine, and Passamaquoddy Bay, which divides the United States and Canada. In order to better understand the painting we must first know a little more about the artist. “Like many early American artists, Chambers drew inspiration from etchings, engravings and lithographs of American scenery,” and combined it with his passion of realism to produce his masterful works. Chambers makes use of linear perspective in Eastport, and Passamaquoddy Bay as we can see the implied banks of the river converge towards the bottom left of the piece, even though the view is somewhat hindered by the bushes near the front. There is also a vanishing point towards the middle right side as the mountains fade to blue in the background and the invisible parallel lines formed by the tops of the mountains also converge. Chambers uses thin lines but gives defined outlines to the objects in the foreground of the painting to convey the realism he aims to achieve. The convergence of the implied lines forming the river banks with the fading blue mountains on the right produce a left to right movement when viewing the painting. The invisible lines created by the mountain range and the river emphasize direction by moving the viewer from a narrow and cramped foreground to a vastly open background that seems to go on for miles. His use of lines to produce this movement down the river has an effect of taking the viewer on a short ride into the distance towards the open mountains under a clear blue sky with white fluffy clouds. In contrast the buildings in the distance are enveloped in white with much softer lines and less defined outlines. This progression from clearly outlined and defined to less defined and wispy shapes communicates the thought of starting a journey in firm reality and moving down a dreamy river towards the unknown. Carefree clouds, beautiful mountains, and blue water just take the viewer to a more serene place, away from the reality of the beginning. The shapes are two dimensional but the use of the sky as a light source allows Chambers to create shadows giving the foreground plenty of depth and realism. Again as we move from the foreground through the middle ground to the background we see the shadows being less emphasized and the colors tend to thereby be brighter with less depth in the shapes. The natural light creates true to life shadows and crisp reflections in the clear waters of the Passamaquoddy Bay. The light from the sky also plays on the hills as we see some sides shrouded in shadow while the others are bright green. The blue of the sky and the middle ground water acts as the dominant and unifying factor for the painting. The calming blue truly creates the serene sense in the scene that Chambers desires. The sky, the mountains, and the water all swirling into a single color but the different shades keep them completely separate from one another. Chambers was truly able to capture the “oneness” of nature by repeating the use of the color blue, but at the same time defines them as completely different entities by using its different shades. Eastport, and Passamaquoddy Bay is oil on canvas, which is the most appropriate medium to achieve the effect that Chambers intended to achieve. Oil paints produce bright and luminous colors, which are perfect for the scene of Passamaquoddy Bay. The bright colors also help balance the interplay of light and shadow in the piece and can capture the vibrant array of colors in nature as they are easily mixed on the canvas. There is quite a bit of white that gets mixed in the background and to produce the soft progression the oil paints’ quality to mix helped Chambers capture the exact effect. Also, since oil pants don’t dry too quickly they would allow the painter to work on a piece over several weeks without fear of drying, but that is a double edged sword as slow drying can also hinder progress onto the next phase of the piece. All in all, the soothing scene of Eastport and Passamaquoddy Bay is a work of art to truly experience. It takes the viewer on a journey from a humble shoreline to a misty and unknown beyond with other sailboats to dispel the loneliness and endless rolling hills under a blue sky with fluffy white clouds.
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