Small gems of splendor

At 90½ years old, Anne Bell Robb is going strong, painting up a storm as she’s done for most of her life. Working nearly every day, Robb creates intimate scenes with an appealing air of American primitive art. “I like [the style] because of their innocence, and in a way, my work picks up on that, because I don’t use a pencil or any guide. I go right to the paint, so things lean and tilt.”

The result is immensely inviting. Robb greatly simplifies her scenes, letting our eyes linger on the remaining details. Houses are a particular favorite: “I was always painting them. Maybe it was because I lived in the Daniel Fisher house [now a Vineyard Preservation Trust property], starting at 6 months, when my father’s first cousin owned it.” The distinctive building features prominently in several of her paintings, including “The Neighborhood,” which also includes the Old Whaling Church. A stylized tree splits the composition in half with its leaves spreading upward, drawing our gaze to the vinelike design carved into the picture frame.

Robb’s frames are integral to the works, surrounding the small gems with splendor. She sometimes decorates them herself, or acquires vintage ones at thrift stores. The frames complement and often bring out the colors in the paintings. Her palette ranges from bold to subtler hues: “I started out painting very pale colors, and the paintings looked old when they were finished. Over the years, I’ve gotten more comfortable with brighter, deeper colors. I was a photographer, and my area was color, so it’s not surprising that I play with color a lot.”

Robb began painting with watercolors, then turned to acrylics, which lent the images greater opacity: “I use acrylics instead of oil because they dry faster and I can do overlays. I usually do a painting in one sitting.” She works from photographs, and says, “I used to paint in situ, but the view I often wanted was from the middle of the street, so that didn’t work.”

The artist’s specialization has led her to work with many museums and colleges, creating paintings of their buildings that are turned into notecards. Clients have included Colonial Williamsburg, Monticello, and universities such as Dartmouth, Princeton, Brown, and Harvard.

Robb, who lives in Sherborn in the off-season, has a generational house on East Chop that has been in the family since the 1950s. It, too, has architectural interest: “It’s called the Rope House by carpenters, because the corners are carved rope.” 

Although stylized, her Vineyard paintings definitely evoke the Island. “Storm Coming,” with cows in the pasture and roiling clouds overhead, depicts the Keith Farm on Middle Road. “The Cradle” reflects a shipyard in Vineyard Haven, with a sailing ship center stage. In another iconic Vineyard image, Robb captures “The Shenandoah” in all her splendor, rigged with sails aloft. “She goes by my house almost every day, so I treated myself to that,” Robb continues. “People tell me that my paintings have a sense of the Vineyard.”

Anne Bell Robb, who has been exhibiting on the Vineyard since she was 17, is thriving, painting intimate scenes that can be seen at the Granary Gallery in West Tisbury.