In White Sea, Monhegan, Tam captures the island’s windswept stillness with a delicate balance between observation and abstraction. The composition, dominated by pale tones of sea and sky, is punctuated by soft strokes of ochre, plum, and blue, suggesting rocks emerging through surf along Monhegan’s jagged coastline. Tam’s first visit to the island in the early 1950s marked a turning point in his career, offering a stark northern contrast to the tropical color and volcanic forms of his native Hawaii. Like many artists before him, he was drawn to Monhegan’s raw, elemental landscape, where the rocky coastline, shifting Atlantic light, and sense of isolation created a setting that encouraged introspection and experimentation. For generations the island had attracted painters seeking clarity and renewal, Winslow Homer, Rockwell Kent, and Edward Hopper among them, and Tam, too, found in its wild terrain a place to distill form and light in new ways. Of monhegan he wrote:

“One place was especially fascinating to me – Monhegan Island. Here I built a studio home…The spruce forests, headland and tides of the island have been major subject matter in my work for more than twenty years. The confluence of Atlantic wind and ocean currents and the weathering of rocky promontories provide the basic theme, but unlike the rich warm red and burnt sienna basalt of Hawaii, here it is cold grey gneiss and granite. The sky can be opaque with fog for weeks on end, and your palette runs to Payne’s grey and lots of white for fog, sea, and spindrift.”

Excerpt from an Autobiographical Essay by Reuban Tam, 1975 – Smithsonian Archives