Hosted by Lend A Hand donor, friend, and Hale family art collector Kenneth Woodcock, LAH friends were invited for a tour of the historic summer homestead of our founder, Edward Everett Hale, as well as the Studio for Hale Family Art in Matunuck, RI. Donors were transported back to another time as they toured the Hale House, where Hale spent summers with his family over many years.
Hale’s children, inspired by the landscape and quiet idyllic beauty of the Matunuck area, spent summers there painting. Today, many of their works are on display in a private timber-framed gallery established by Ken Woodcock.
Julia Landstreet and Mike Sherry of the South Kingstown Land Trust hosted the group for a delicious lunch overlooking the wildflower and tall wheat-toned grass fields the Hales would have viewed from their home over 150 years ago.
The bucolic surroundings inspired both detailed botanical drawings and watercolors by Susan Hale as much as the vibrant atmospheric landscapes and portraits by the next generation of impressionists, Philip, Lilian, and Ellen. It is a scenic and serene landscape where the house and surrounding area seem to be stopped in time, preserved, and left untouched, as Hale and his family would have experienced 150 years ago. We are grateful that Ken Woodcock had the vision and expertise to undertake this valuable restoration project and the generosity to make it available for others to explore and enjoy.
