In 1989, after a half-lifetime of making only abstract art, I started making paintings portraying the Provincetown Art community at leisure – what people do when they are not working – the fabric of life that draws people back every year.
Since then I have made over 220 paintings in this series, including notable talents such as Norman Mailer, Robert Motherwell, Stanley Kunitz, Alan Dugan, Douglas Huebler, Justin Kaplan, Joel Meyerowitz, Annie Dillard, Mark Strand, Sebastian Junger, Alec Wilkinson, E.J. Kahn, Jr, Varujan Boghosian, Daniel Okrent, Mischa Richter, Al Jaffee, Lee Falk, Elise Asher, Anne Bernays, Jhumpa Lahiri, Robert Pinsky, Ruth Reichl, Richard Blanco, Bill Rawn, Jane Leavy, Gary Burton, Morton Dean. The dimensions of most pieces are either 60 x 43 inches or 40 x 30 inches
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FEATURED PORTRAITS
Installation iPhone Video View, 2016
ELMAN + HOLT
THE OUTER CAPE ART COLONY
PROVINCETOWN ART ASSOCIATION & MUSUEM
JUNE 17 TO AUGUST 7, 2016
"In this exhibition we celebrate the work of two Cape Cod artists: Raymond Elman and Norma Holt. For decades they recorded the intellectual and cultural life of our unique art colony at the tip of Cape Cod by making portraits of the creative talent that embraces the special nature of this seaside community.
This place is the hidden character of the story, and perhaps the most influential one. It breathes a historic significance into the images of Elman and Holt. To understand why, one only needs to look at the Outer Cape as a historic center of creative achievement. The people that live or lived here gave it a kind of star power. They came for inspiration and were rewarded by the nature of this place. The Outer Cape is isolated enough for one’s thoughts to gain clarity. However, the Outer Cape’s geography is also compact enough so one does not need to go too far to reach a social center of town to find a willing collaborator. In this way, recognized and less recognized artists rubbed shoulders with each other so that everybody, including the subjects of these portraits, became part of the cultural stew and birthed remarkable artwork."
ETHAN COHEN, curator
