This painting is what will probably be the final Music Room/Ballroom series called "The Music Pier". The painting is large (20" x 26"). I am using the second floor of the Walpole, NH town hall as the interior. I was attracted to the lofty ceiling and the huge Romanesque windows and the amazing light that spreads throughout the room. There is a piano and a rug with nothing but ocean and clouds outside.

When I was a small child growing up in Ocean City, NJ, my grandparents were big on my brothers and I attending Sunday school and church every Sunday. As a 7 or 8 year old, I found the sermons to be rather boring and always looked forward to the closing of the service.

However, occasionally in summer when the heat was unbearable, and as there was no air conditioning, church service would be scheduled for the Music Pier.

Protruding into the ocean off of the boardwalk, one could see the swells going by the window and hear the crashing of the waves on the pilings below. I never found the church service boring on these days. I would fantasize that we were all on a ship.

The painting featured within "The Music Pier" is "Storm on the Sea of Galilee" by Rembrandt. This was the only seascape painted by the artist. It was stolen in March, 1990, from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston along with twelve other masterpieces. Also included in the heist was a Vermeer featured in "Still Waters".

-- Edward Gordon