Dune Shack Living

  If there is ever anything that a person can do before they die, it might be to live in a dune shack for a week. It is a very special thing and hard to explain without experiencing it, but I am going to give it a try.  In Provincetown, there are 10 - 15 shacks out on the sand. They are not fancy, they are are usually one room, though some have a few rooms. All are walking distance to the Atlantic Ocean. All are simple. All are rustic. All are intensely competitive to get to stay in.  None have running water. None have electricity. None have indoor plumbing. So why are they so desirable? They are about self. About being able to spend time listening to the ocean, writing, making art, looking at birds and wild life, waking up with the sun, going to sleep once you can't see anymore from the gas lamps or are tired. Pumping your own water from the well.  Being one with nature. 

There are 3 ways to stay in them, one is by joining the Peaked Hill Trust and getting your name in a lottery. The 2nd is another lottery through the Provincetown Community Compact. Hundreds of people apply year after year. The Peaked Hill manages (I think) 8 shacks, and the Compact manages 3. The 3rd way is to own one. There are a few that have been with the families for generations, there has been an on-going "process" of dealing with the National Park Service of the National Seashore who wanted to tear them down. Years of meetings and trying to identify who will get them once the families original person dies. It is really complicated and I know I'm not giving it justice.

When you are out there, you would never believe that the town of Provincetown is only a few miles over the dune. You really feel like you are "somewhere else" far away.

 

 I am very lucky that I have been awarded one again this year, in the next few weeks. The following paintings and drawings were done last year in Seascape. Last year I was there for the same week in October and there were 3 Nor'easter during that week. One would say that it would have been nice to have the storm windows put up before I arrived not the day I was leaving. It was VERY windy inside. There was a lovely wood stove, though it didn't stay on through out the night, so by morning starting a new fire....it was cold.  

 

Most of these are very little paintings 4" x 6"