Collection Coloring Book

Color with the PAAM Collection!

This project was developed by our former Curator of Adult Education Lynn Stanley. Print out the PDFs below if you’re able and use whatever materials you have on hand (markers, colored pencils, crayons), or use a digital drawing tool (even just your phone’s edit photo feature or Microsoft Paint) to add some color and dimension. All sorts of interpretations are welcome, from true color studies of the original works, to those that are a little more out of the box. We’d love to share your work on our Facebook and Instagram pages, please tag us on one of those platforms with your completed or in-progress pieces, or e-mail Annie: alongley@paam.org.

BJO NORDFELT, BLUE WATER FISHERMAN

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD A PDF OF THIS COLORING BOOK PAGE

This coloring page was adapted from a white-line print called Blue Water Fisherman, created in Provincetown over 100 years ago by the artist Bror Julius Olsson Nordfelt. Born in Sweden in 1878, BJO immigrated with his family to Chicago, Illinois when he was 13. He worked as a printer’s assistant and studied Japanese woodblock prints before moving to Provincetown in 1914, where he and other artists perfected the white-line print, now known as The Provincetown Print. To create a white-line print, the artist carves an image into one block of wood, then paints section of the wood and lays paper over the image, rubbing the back of the paper to transfer the image onto the paper from the block. These prints are named “white-lines” because the paper picks up the paint from the surface of the block, and the carved, concave lines remain white, or the color of the paper.

BJO Nordfelt, Blue Water Fisherman, c. 1916, PAAM Collection

ALVIN ROSS, AMERICAN COFFEE AND DANISH

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This painting is called American Coffee and Danish, and was painted in 1968 by Alvin Ross. Ross studied art throughout his whole life, learning to paint everyday objects in a photographic way. In this photo-realistic painting, notice the shine of the coffee pot and the reflection of other objects in its surface. This type of painting is called a still-life, because it captures a moment in time of everyday life.

Alvin Ross, American Coffee and Danish, 1968, PAAM Collection, Gift from The Lenore Ross Trust

DOROTHY LAKE GREGORY, CAT AT THE WINDOW

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD A PDF OF THIS COLORING BOOK PAGE

This painting is called Cat at the Window, and was painted by Dorothy Lake Gregory. Gregory was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1893 and showed an interest in art from an early age. Her father was an editor at The New York Tribune, and by the age of eight, she had joined “the family business,” publishing pen and ink drawings in newspapers! In 1914, she moved to Provincetown and is well-remembered as a successful illustrator and accomplished printmaker. This painting portrays the back of a cat staring out of a window at a boat sailing by. How does Gregory use different colors here? Why do you think she chose the colors that she did? What do you think the cat is thinking about?

Dorothy Lake Gregory, Cat at the Window, PAAM Collection, Gift of Dr. & Mrs. Henry Fogelman, 1991