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American Impressionism in the twentieth century was largely located at the Cape School of Art first by Charles Hawthorne and carried through by Henry Hensche.  " Hawthorne lived in a fishing gear shack at William Merritt Chases 's Shinnecock studio.  His student Henry Hensche had to live and paint without heat in his early days at Cape Cod."*

Light key was most important to Hensche.

"Paint the large notes of color.  Paint at different times of the day to get different light."  Hensche stated all the time.

I would often ask " when can I stop painting blocks?"

"Never" he would say . " They are like scale studies for the muscian or

armature building for the sculptor.  Do you understand?"

Yes I did understand and yet was not pleased with his answer.

I wanted to get to painting still lifes or landscapes which eventually I did

years later.  After painting day by day for thirty years.

I keep hearing his voice telling me to paint the large color masses first and then come back in and paint the other colors I see.  The color notes will turn the form, make it round, a rectangle whatever...you will see.

With persistence and increasingly being able to see without the filters of what I was taught to see I began to really paint.  To paint the way Hensche  taught me for four years.

*Hensche on Painting by John Robichaux, pg. 3.