Provincetown is a burgeoning art community dating to the summer of 1899, when Charles Webster Hawthorne opened his Cape Cod School of Art. In 1914, the Provincetown Art Association was founded. And by 1915, as many as 90 students were enrolled in Hawthorne’s style of impressionist painting.
Fast-forward to 1988, when the artist Anne Packard opened the doors to the Packard Gallery in what was once home to a Christian Science Church. At 93 years old, Packard is known worldwide as a renowned landscape artist. She paints simple, sparsely rendered scenes of the Outer Cape, as well as of Europe. And now, over 30 years later, the gallery is still family-owned and family-run.
“Anne Packard: An Artist’s Resolve” is a recently released documentary film that has been packing audiences in at film festivals, most recently Sarasota, Florida. Director Arthur Egeli and Executive Producer Judith Richland recently joined The Culture Show to talk about the extraordinary life of an extraordinary woman. The following interview with GBH’s Henry Santoro has been slightly edited for clarity.
Henry Santoro: Welcome. Tell me about how this film came to be. I mean, how did you find Anne and how did she agree to having a film made about her?
Arthur Egeli: A few years ago, we were making a film on the beach, and I noticed with some interest that this elderly woman was watching the action. And I said to her, “Anne, would you like to be the nosy neighbor?” She said, “That’s what I am, and I will be in your movie.” And that’s how we met her.
Santoro: And we should say that you have a gallery in Provincetown, so you know the lay of the land.
Egeli: I have a gallery in Provincetown. Because of that, I know how special it is to have one. And it’s not only an accomplishment, but it can launch you as an artist.
Santoro: You’re also a filmmaker with seven films under your belt.
Judith Richland: And I might add that Anne has had cameo pieces in at least three of our films, hasn’t she?
Egeli: She has. She’s a natural — how shall I say — celebrity.
Santoro: Especially in Provincetown, there’s no question. While her paintings are very serene, she is not. Anne Packard is a feisty woman. Interestingly, you didn’t have to convince her to allow you to bring in your cameras.
Egeli: It was in the dead of winter last year. I might have been moping around my house because I didn’t really feel like painting. And my wife said, “Why don’t you visit Anne?” My wife’s also a producer in this movie. I went down to her house and she wasn’t around. But then I saw the lift chair that goes up the stairs. When I walked upstairs, there was Anne surrounded by 14 or 15 paintings bigger than her. She was painting. She excitedly said, ”Arthur, what do you think of this?“ And I’m like, ”Wow.“ Suddenly, I felt inadequate because I’ve been moping and she’s been painting and her career is going forward and mine’s not. But at that moment I said, ”Anne, let me just take a little video of you.“ And I did. It was about 45 seconds.
Santoro: And that’s all it took.
Egeli: That’s all it took.
Santoro: Born in Hyde Park, New York, 1933. How and why was Provincetown on her radar, or was it?
Egeli: Anne practically grew up in Provincetown in the summer. Her family would vacation there, and she had fond memories of it. I think when she got married and moved to Princeton, New Jersey, I think all she was thinking about how was she can get herself back to Provincetown. It happened in a way she wouldn’t have planned on. She always mentions that her husband who wanted to be Hemingway left her for a 19-year-old and moved to Paris and left her alone with five children. But she knew she had skills. She started painting and began to put up her paintings on the fence near her house for $5 or $10 or $15. Those paintings are priceless now, pretty much, in my opinion. That’s how she started to make a living.
Santoro: While in her younger years, we learn that she came from a family of artists, but her parents had other ideas. They did not want her to be an artist, correct?
Egeli: Correct. They didn’t want her to be a bohemian. That’s how she put it. They sent her to study with a local painter in the summer, and he reported back that Anne’s got talent. Her mother said, “Please don’t tell her because she’s not going to be an artist like these beatnik artists up here on the Cape. She is going to be a secretary or she’s going to be a nurse.” And Anne is proud to tell me she failed at both.
Santoro: Was she self-taught?
Egeli: She studied with Philip Malicoat. But I preface that with what’s so cool about Anne is that she’s constantly learning. When you’re with her, she asks you, “What do you think of this? Should I move this boat? Should I do this or do that?” And she listens to what you say, and it’s like, that’s amazing. And even now at 93, she’s improving. And it’s more exciting.
Santoro: The thing about being an artist is that there is no age limit. When you look at the likes of Picasso or a Packard.
Egeli: I’m 62, I’ll have to admit that. On the downhill.
Santoro: That’s what my PCP says, “Santoro, you’re on the back nine.”
Egeli: When you realize she’s 93 and she’s still reinventing herself and she’s energetic and creative, it’s just an inspiration.
Richland: Anne also describes herself as having a fire in her belly that has never subsided, and that she’s anxious to continue more and more as a painter. She wants to be more productive.
Santoro: I know a little bit about the Provincetown art scene and a little bit about Anne, but it seems to me that she was by herself in Provincetown. She had her daughters and her son, but she was by herself. What did the other members of the art colony think of Anne?
Egeli: Recently, I’ve become the Anne surrogate because she doesn’t get out, but I do. So these, I don’t know how to say it, jealous green-headed monsters say things to me, that — seems like a compliment, but it’s not a compliment about her. Anne paved the way. She made it to the mountaintop. She’s calling us over. She’s showing you how to do it, and she’s very generous. But there are a lot of painters who wouldn’t have it. They see this out-of-town woman doing so well. We all dream of having, owning all our houses for cash. I guess, should I say that on the radio?
Richland: Anne talks about how it was an exclusive boys’ club, all the people who were artists in Provincetown who were making it in the galleries and making money.
Santoro: Well, she claimed that men slowed her down.
Richland: And she was right.
Egeli: Last time I saw her she said, “Arthur, I hate to boast, but if I were younger, you’d be my lover.” A little shiver went through me as she mentioned it, and I said something like, “I might have been her slave.”
Santoro: Nappi, from Nappi’s Restaurant, who we lost a few years ago was a major art collector in Provincetown. Did he own some of her work? I would imagine he did.
Egeli: I can’t say one way or the other, but having known Nappi, that’s a loaded question.
Santoro: Yeah, because he was a feisty one himself.
Egeli: Nappi was opinionated.
Santoro: And you just got to walk into that restaurant, and you can really see who that guy is.
Egeli: Anne, in many ways, kept herself separate from the art politics of the town. I understood why because as soon as you open your door to your studio, you’re derailed. She has a way of getting into work and immersing herself. I’ll walk up to the studio, and I’ll be filming her for 2 or 3 minutes before she even notices. And when she does notice, she’s either irritated or happy. She says, “Turn that off!” Or like, “Arthur, look what I did! Is this not the best thing I’ve ever painted?”
Santoro: Is she still selling her paintings?
Richmond: Daily. Even one painting that she did during the film went for $25,000, didn’t it?
Egeli: Well, I can even top that. I came in one day, and this is the winter after a storm, and she’s painting a snow scene through the window of the Provincetown shore. And we posted it. I call it artists viral because 50,000 is viral for an artist. Of course, Anne’s getting hundreds of thousands of hits now. But that painting sold in a day for $35,000 to a collector in Austin, Texas. And, you know, she’s still selling paintings.
Santoro: She had five children, and we should say that one of them, her son Michael, is a celebrity in his own right. Because he’s the only person in recorded history to have been inside the mouth of a whale. And he survived and he was freed as the whale dislodged him — and he’s been on this radio station many times to talk about the experience, to talk about the film that was made about it. But it’s her daughters who work with her in the gallery, correct?
Egeli: One thing about Michael I have to say is that one of the most touching scenes in the film is when he describes the sailboat that she bought for him for his birthday. It was a rowboat with a 7-horsepower Mercury on it, but it started his career. The story is very touching, but I won’t even repeat it now. You must see the movie to see it, but it connects the family in a strong way.
Santoro: And her daughters are painting and they’re selling, as well.
Richmond: Yeah, two of her daughters are painting. They were very involved in the gallery through the years. I also have to say that what is so remarkable about this film is that she’s a 93-year-old woman passionate about her art, and she has said, “If you’re in your 50s, your 60s, your 70s, your 80s and 90s, it’s not all over.” There’s still so much you can do. Now that’s aspiration. That is so inspiring for any viewer, really.
Santoro: My friend Peter Wolf, the lead singer for The J. Geils Band, just wrapped up a tour. He’s 81 years old. He’s bouncing around that stage like he’s 31 years old. And when he’s asked by fans and other people, “How long are you going to keep doing this?” His answer is, “Nobody ever told Monet when to stop painting. Nobody ever told Picasso when to stop painting. And nobody ever told Anne Packard when to stop painting.”
Egeli: I guarantee she’s painting right now.
Santoro: “Anne Packard: An Artist’s Resolve” is the documentary film we’re talking about. It’s been packing audiences in at film festivals. It will surely do so on Cape Cod. Directed by Arthur Egli and Executive Produced by Judith Richland. Thank you so much for coming in. This has been a treat. I can’t wait to see this film.
