Completing the Harwich Beaches Collection: A Story of Light, Tide, and Time on Cape Cod

A section of the wall of fourteen 18 x 36 oil paintings tracing the shoreline of Harwich on Cape Cod - from quiet harbors and weathered lifeguard chairs to windswept dunes and summer beaches - capturing the maritime beauty, history, and changing light of the Cape in classic New England

There are places on Cape Cod where history does not feel trapped in museums or books. It still lingers in the salt air, in the worn harbors, and in the long sweep of beach grass moving under an Atlantic wind.

That feeling followed me through every oil painting in this completed series of Harwich, Massachusetts beaches.

What began as a handful of plein air studies slowly became something much larger: a visual journey through this beautiful part of Cape Cod. After months of painting tides, weather, harbors, dunes, marshes, and shoreline light across the seasons, the Harwich beach collection is complete.

This was a particularly fun part of the Cape to explore - the beaches of Harwich, carry a quiet authority that is hard to put into words but impossible to ignore once you’ve painted them. Settled in the 1660s and officially incorporated in 1694, Harwich, Massachusetts has always lived in close relationship with the sea.

Long before it became known for summer tourism and Cape Cod vacations, Harwich was a working maritime town shaped by fishing, shipbuilding, and survival on the Atlantic coast.

The journey behind this chapter began at One Belmont Road, with Belmont Road Beach becoming painting number 64 in the wider collection. I arrived just after summer had slipped away, when the crowds had vanished and the Cape had settled back into its quieter rhythm - the kind of peaceful off-season moment that makes you feel like you’ve stumbled upon a secret version of Cape Cod.

Pleasant Road Beach, Grey Neck Beach, and Earle Road Beach each shared a similar character, tucked closely together along the shoreline and instantly recognizable by the iconic Harwich lifeguard chairs standing watch over the sand. Even so, each beach carried its own subtle mood and light, making them a pleasure to paint in their own right.

By the time I reached Harwich Port, I found myself wandering down nearly every side street that slipped toward the shoreline, where land and sea met in quiet, weathered seams - starting with Wah Wah Taysee Beach. The name alone stopped me in my tracks - “Wah Wah Taysee” comes from an Ojibwe phrase meaning “little firefly,” which somehow feels perfectly suited to the soft glow and quiet atmosphere of the Cape in late summer. One memorable moment came while gathering reference material for Zylpha Road Beach, when I was caught in a sudden downpour and completely drenched, only to later dry off eating icecream at the nearby Sundae School.

The Harwich chapter ultimately grew to 14 beaches, bringing the wider painting series to number 77 and ending, fittingly enough, at the wonderfully named Uncle Venies Road. Next stop: Chatham. If you’d like to follow the journey and get first access to new paintings as they complete, do subscribe to my monthly private email list.