Our State Magazine: Art of the Porch

The HAMMOCK HOUSE circa 1700 - Beaufort, NC

Art of the Porch

Inspired by Beaufort’s architecture, artist Mary Warshaw documents the history and hospitality of the coastal seaport town with a paintbrush.

By Misti C. Lee

The white wicker rocking chairs waiting on the porch of Beaufort’s historic Hammock House invites passer-by to slow down and enjoy the breeze blowing through this tiny seaport village.

The tranquil scene, familiar to visitors of North Carolina’s third oldest town, is one of many that Beaufort artist Mary Warshaw is re-creating on canvas from her bungalow a block or so from the water’s edge. With Beaufort’s beautiful old home providing plenty of inspiration, Warshaw is using her paintbrush and acrylics to recreate Beaufort’s finest feature—its porches.

“People have said to me that [my] porches make them want to walk up and sit down,” says Warshaw, 59, sipping coffee at her kitchen table in Beaufort. “I want the viewer to want to step up. You can almost feel yourself walking inside the gate and up on the porch. It’s an inviting thing.”

Warshaw, who has grown to love the town’s relaxed, peaceful pace and its beautiful old homes since moving here about five years ago, finds the seaport village’s porches intriguing. Beaufort’s 12-block historic district is filled with more than 100 old homes, most of them over a century old and fronted by covered porches. Many Homes feature large double porches stacked one on top of the other, providing porch access on the first and second floors.

“I’m documenting history,” Warshaw says, leaning back in her chair, hugging her knee. “The doors of the porches have kind of been flung open to me—the present and the past.”

The town was first settled in 1709 as an outpost on the southern end of the Outer Banks. After the town was incorporated in 1723, s

ettlers began building town homes in Beaufort to handle their shipping and trading businesses. Through the years, Beaufort’s porches have witnessed history-in-the-making, as sailors, merchants, Civil War soldiers, pirates, and spies shaped the area’s history. Lesser-known settlers—businessmen, housewives, servants, and children—made their mark, too, using the porches to watch nearby ships, to entertain family and friends, to do household chores, or to play childhood games. Porches took on a variety of roles depending on the owner’s need, particularly for homes that were used as ships’ stores, taverns, inns, or boarding schools.

“A lot of history had taken place on these porches,” says Patricia Suggs, executive director of the Beaufort Historical Association. “Mainly the porches have watched as the town grew from its small beginnings to what it is now. There were some houses with double porches that were hospitals during the Civil War, so the porches saw everybody coming and going.”

Many Southern coastal settlers built homes to fit the climate in which they lived, and Beaufort’s early inhabitants were no exception. The earliest homes were built with steep-pitched roofs that covered full-length porches.

“Architecturally, Beaufort is well known for its porches, with the porches providing sea breeze and as large a view of the water as possible,” Suggs says. “This was the Bahamian and West Indies influence. Everything architecturally came to us by people traveling by water. The water was the superhighway.”

Perhaps the best feature of Beaufort’s porches is that they are a place for family and friends to visit: It’s that feeling of warmth that Warshaw hopes to capture through her paintings. “People don’t respond to a painting unless they sense that warmth,” Warshaw says.

“One of the most interesting things that is still common today in Beaufort is that sitting on your porch is a sign that you are ready to receive visitors, “Suggs says. “My next-door neighbor, who is 100 years old but you would think she’s 70, she’ll sit on her porch, and she’ll welcome you in. It won’t be like ‘oh, come sit on my porch.’ It’s like ‘come sit inside with me.’ Almost every house in Beaufort has some kind of porch.”

When Suggs’ neighbor, Theresa Hill, holds court on her porch, you want to join her, Suggs says. “Your day can be hectic and busy, but you relax. It’s the simplicity of it, sitting in a rocking chair on a front porch.”

Warshaw’s paintings were featured on a special poster** for Beaufort’s Annual Homes and Gardens tour, held the last full week in June for the last 44 years. “I think Mary tries to capture the inviting aspect of ‘welcome to my home from my porch,’” Suggs says. “I think really it takes you back to a slower, quieter time. You think of sitting on the porch and drinking iced tea or lemonade. Instead of rushing in and out of the house, it’s a time to linger.”

The pinewood paneling, hardwood floors and arched doorways of Warshaw’s two-bedroom bungalow provide a warm setting for Warshaw to paint. As she walks over to an easel in a corner by her work area, W

arshaw points to the painting of the Jame Davis House, which was built in 1829. The saltbox-style home boasts a center chimney, five fireplaces, and a full basement, which was used as a workshop.

“That painting is one of my favorites so far because it almost painted itself,” Warshaw says, looking at the portrait of the tan house with its white and pink wave petunias spilling through the picket fence in front of the home. “It’s something you can’t push. I add and build with the paints but also change and edit because maybe a roofline isn’t right or I’ve got to move that beam. I may have gotten carried away in painting one area and then have to reposition something.”

The Monroe native began painting the coastal town’s famous porches soon after she moved to the area in 1998. Warshaw, who already loved painting ocean and sand scenes, was looking for a new subject to paint when she became intrigued with the town’s porches. With more than 100 homes more than a century old, many of them built in the 18^th and 19^th centuries, Beaufort provided plenty of material for Warshaw to choose from.

“I was looking through a book on Beaufort, and I had been painting seascapes and sand dunes, small projects. But I was attracted to the light and the contrast, the dappled light of the porches, so I did a painting from a picture in the book, and thought ‘I feel something here,’” Warshaw says.

Warshaw loves the stories that spill from these porches and hopes to compile the stories and history she’s gathered about each of the homes into a book. When choosing a new porch to paint, Warshaw enjoys searching for lesser-known nuggets of information, like stories long-ago residents may have passed on to family members or friends.

“For instance, a friend told me her grandmother in 1926 or so had one of the only cars in town,” Warshaw says. “She and a doctor had cars. They were afraid of the gas--that it would explode or something, so they kept the gas over on Carrot Island. They’d get in a boat and row over and get some gas when they needed it.”

Finally reaching a point in her life when she can immerse herself in art and paint all day is sweet. Like many mothers, Warshaw’s focus in her earlier years shifted from painting to her family. She whetted her creative appetite by running Applause, a card and gift shop in

Winston-Salem, for several years until 1997 when, eager for a change, she closed the shop and moved to the coast. She discovered she felt most at home in Beaufort. “The people here are just wonderful as far as really caring and listening and becoming involved, and it’s from their hearts,” she says.

As happy as she seems talking quietly in her cozy home, her bare feet tucked beneath her, Warshaw had doubts early on about staying in Beaufort and pursuing her dream of painting.

“I was thinking about moving back inland to the Raleigh area at one point before I really started painting. I came back down here, and was walking on Front Street. An ibis walked across in front of me. I thought ‘I can’t move away from here,’” she says, laughing.

Soon after, she had another moment of clarity while looking toward Carrot Island, a narrow strip of land across the waterway, which let her know she was where she needed to be.

“There were two dolphins in the creek, and on the island were several feeding horses. On the backs of the horses were white egrets,” Warshaw says. “I kid you not. They do that two or three times a year. The horses allow the egrets to eat the bugs from their coats. It was so funny to see it all in one vision.”

The relaxed feeling that comes with living along Beaufort’s narrow streets and waterways and its historic district are conducive to a life of painting. Finding beauty in a tuft of grass, the pitch of a roof, the color of a shadow is part of the process of recording and documenting Beaufort’s history.

“It’s a fantastic avenue for giving and making people happy with something that I’m able to do,” Warshaw says. “It’s not a job. It’s doing what I love to do and learning and growing. I’m the luckiest person in the world.”

**The 18x24 poster referred to here can be seen on my website. It is an ongoing fundraising project with the Beaufort Business Association. Anyone interested in seeing and ordering it can go to Porches Print for more information.

08/22/07