Vivien Oswell

She is all of 89 years, and most likely by now has entered her tenth decade.  She looks and acts much, much younger.  And in a place overrun with history, tales, legends, and myths, she is an institution.

Vivien Oswell

Her name is Vivien Oswell, and she is an artist. To be more specific, she is a Cape Cod artist. Her path to this calling, and this place, began when she was just a teenager, retouching photos for professional photographers.  What followed this modest entry into the arts is the stuff of which dreams are made.

Her next area of interest focused on hooking rugs, and even making her own patterns for them. On one occasion, she created a portrait of Christ, and the talent she displayed with that rug prompted her sister to give her a set of oil paints, declaring that if she could do that with a rug, she could paint.   Vivien picked up the brush and never looked back.

Fast forward to a young mother with a nascent skill, raising 2 young children, who won second prize in an art contest, giving her the incentive she really needed. Now we have an emerging artist in the making, but where does the Cape come in?  Well, her husband wanted to be a boat builder, and what better place to build boats than Cape Cod?

So, in 1954 she moved to the Cape when her husband secured a job at Allen Harbor.   I believe she still lives in the house/studio they built off Rt. 39 (Sisson Rd.),  just outside Harwich Port.  Inspired by the natural setting of the Cape, and by fellow artists, Vivien finally began to paint seriously.  The world of art, and the Cape, have both benefited mightily from that choice. 

Before long, she was a huge presence in the art communities on the Cape. The Guild of Harwich Artists, the Cape Cod Art Association, and the Provincetown Art Association have all benefited from her contributions and leadership. Vivien has also shared her talents with others by teaching the art of painting. In her success, she has remained a humble and selfless person.  These are adjectives often missing in the world of the artist. But what she does best is what she loves to do most, what she was born to do … paint.

Her works are voluminous, with private commissions of all kinds, formal portraits for banks and institutions (her paintings hang in the county courthouse in Barnstable), a wide variety of Cape scenes, and especially paintings of children on the beach.  She haunts the beaches of the Cape and takes pictures of kids, using them as models for paintings she does later on. I have 3 such, and I swear they are dead ringers for what my kids looked like at the age depicted in the paintings - right down to the clothing. I believe with all my heart that those are my kids she painted….there are simply too many similarities to think otherwise.

For years Vivien and her husband participated in a little studio in downtown Harwich Port, as he also became an artist in his later years.  He was good in his own right, but Vivien was better.  She used to request of people, quietly and on the side, to say something nice to her husband about his work, as he sometimes felt himself not worthy -  simply one more reason to be really impressed with this woman.

Vivien now shows her work at the 820 Main Gallery, on Rt. 28, a ways beyond Sundae School (same side of the street though) and heading for Chatham. She also can be seen at a Cape institution called Art in the Park.  She has been with Art in the Park for more years than I can count. This, a weekly art show in a small park across the street from the Harwich Port Post Office, brings local artists together on Mondays in a weekly outdoor studio/gallery setting that has become a Cape Cod treasure. It is a must stop whenever you visit the Cape.

In my house, there are 15 paintings or prints by Vivien hanging about, especially on the white sun porch that has a distinct Cape Cod theme.  Most of them were purchased at Art in the Park. Her signature painting, in my opinion, is an idyllic portrayal of Wychmere Harbor, done many years ago.  I am proud to have a signed print of that work.  

A few years back, Vivien fell and broke her wrist (shattered is probably a better description).  The surgeon said he could operate and try to fix it, but she would never paint again.   Well, in Vivien’s world, that wasn’t about to happen, so she settled for a bent arm and taught herself how to paint left handed, at the age of 84!

Now, if you are a keen observer like Vivien, you may have read between the lines and by now guessed it; the talented Vivien Oswell is an artist entirely self-taught, which makes her long standing success even more remarkable!  Some people have gifts, and other people are gifts. Vivien Oswell .. is marvelously both.    

I see her but once a year, and we chat only briefly, but I feel as if I have a friend of many years who wants to connect with me as much I do her.  I can’t wait to see that smiling face again next year.

Mark Twain Quote:  “Can it be possible that the painters make John the Baptist a Spaniard in Madrid and an Irishman in Dublin?”