Painting the Light
Martha’s Vineyard, 1898.
In her first life, Ida Russell had been a painter. Five years ago, she had confidently walked the halls of Boston’s renowned Museum School, enrolling in art courses that were once deemed “unthinkable” for women, and showing a budding talent for watercolors.
But no more. Ida Russell is now Ida Pease, resident of a seaside farm on Vineyard Haven, and wife to Ezra, a once-charming man who has become an inattentive and unreliable husband. Ezra runs a salvage company in town with his business partner, Mose Barstow, but he much prefers their nightly card games at the local pub to his work filling haystacks and tending sheep on the farm at home—duties that have fallen to Ida and their farmhand, Lem. Ida, meanwhile, has left her love for painting behind.
It comes as no surprise to Ida when Ezra is hours late for a Thanksgiving dinner, only to leave abruptly for a supposedly urgent business trip to Boston. But then something unfathomable happens: a storm strikes, the ship carrying Ezra and Mose sinks.
In the wake of this shocking tragedy, Ida must settle the affairs of Ezra’s estate, a task that brings her to a familiar face from her past—Henry Barstow, Mose’s brother and executor. As she joins Henry in sifting through the remnants of her husband’s life and work, contemplating the blank canvas her life has become, Ida must learn to separate truth from lies and what matters from what doesn’t.
Captured in rich, painterly prose—piercing as a coastal gale, and shimmering as sunlight on the waves– Painting the Light is an arresting portrait of an unconventional woman, and a considered meditation on grief, persistence, and reinvention.
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Reviews for Painting the Light
Gunning delivers an atmospheric, character-driven story of a young woman’s struggle at the turn of the 20th century . . . In Ida, Gunning has created a captivating personality. This is one that lingers well after the final page is turned.“
— Publisher’s Weekly
Gunning vividly evokes the volatile weather rolling in off the Atlantic and the rustic farming life of the time. Hardships that are a sea-change from Ida’s privileged past are balanced with breathtaking natural beauty . . . As Ida deals with the dark weight of tragedy in her life and the mysteries [her husband] has left behind, she experiences moments of disappointment and love, joy and accomplishment. One constant is her thirst for independence as she learns the secret to painting the light and finding her place in the world.”
— Booklist
Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award
“Shipwrecks and portraits, bicycles and women's suffrage--all these enter into the plot of this excellent summer title as the audiobook transports listeners to Martha's Vineyard, 1898. Ida Russell Pease is an artist and sheep farmer who is struggling with stifling spousal and societal expectations as she copes with the grief of her past. Narrator Eva Kaminsky is an excellent performer; her voice is clear, and her pace and dialogue transitions are outstanding . . . Listeners will want to know what happens to Ida as she navigates significant developments in her life, and Kaminsky's confident, multifaceted narration enhances her story from start to finish.” — L.B.F. — AudioFile
“Sally Cabot Gunning’s compelling novel “Painting The Light” doesn’t just get the colors of Martha’s Vineyard right, but her prose gets every nuance in the complex relationships surrounding Ida, the protagonist.”
— The Martha’s Vineyard Times