Why Cape Cod Colors Live in Every Painting I Make

By Liz Neighbors | Liz Neighbors Studios

There's a shade of blue that only exists on the Cape. I can't fully explain it. It's not the navy of a Brooks Brothers oxford...though I love that too, always will... it's more like the blue of a Hobie Cat sail in the afternoon light on Nantucket Sound. Or the way the sky looks over the boatyard in Cataumet on a cold, clear March morning. That blue. You know the one.

That's where most of my paintings start, honestly. Not with a brush or a color swatch…with a memory. A really vivid one.

When I painted "Wild Blueberry Swirl," I wasn't thinking about color theory or composition. I was thinking about Coonamessett Farm. Summer mornings picking blueberries, fingers stained purple, the smell of warm grass and sunshine. Those blues and purples just…showed up. Because they were already in me somewhere.

I think that's what makes art worth hanging on a wall. Not that it's pretty, though I do love pretty! but that it takes you somewhere. A friend has one of my Cape Cod prints in her kitchen in Connecticut. She told me she looks at it every morning with her coffee and it puts her right back at the beach. I mean…that's everything. That's the whole point.

If you've spent any real time on the Cape: Cataumet, Falmouth, Chatham, anywhere along those gorgeous winding roads, you already know. The colors here are different. The creamy white of the wrapped boats at the boatyard in off-season. The dusty gold of beach grass against an October sky. The weathered coral of an old lobster buoy. The deep green of the salt marsh at high tide. These aren't colors I invented. They're colors I remember. And when I get them down on paper, I feel like I'm saving a little piece of that place…sending it somewhere it can be loved every day.

I started sharing my art on a dare... a doodle a day on Facebook, scared out of my mind that anyone would actually see it. Didn't look at the comments for two whole weeks. Scaredy cat! When I finally did look, I cried. People wanted prints. People wanted notecards. People wanted a little piece of what I was making, and I couldn't believe it.

We're all hungry for things that feel real…for color and memory and joy in our everyday spaces. I still believe that. Every piece I make, whether it's an abstract original or a fine art print of the Cape, goes out with that same spirit. The spirit of someone who grew up driving to the Cape with the windows down, who still counts the boats in the harbor just for fun, who gets genuinely giddy in a good art supply store. Lol.

If you're looking for Cape Cod wall art, a colorful print for a beach house, or an original painting that just stops you - come browse my collection. I'd love for something to find its way to your walls.

Shop the collection → [lizneighborsstudios.com]

Some colors are too good to leave at the beach. 🩷

Xo Liz

Tags: Cape Cod art prints, original paintings Cape Cod, coastal wall art, abstract art prints, Falmouth MA art, beach house decor, Cape Cod life, New England art, colorful abstract painting, art prints for home