I Lived with the Painting

Midcoast Villager

As told to Willy Blackmore, August 23, 2025

When MASS MoCA, the destination contemporary art museum in North Adams,

Mass., was expanding into a new building a number of years back, Barbara Prey was

commissioned to do an almost singular work to show in the new gallery. Prey, who is

celebrating the 25th anniversary of her Port Clyde gallery this summer, is best-known

in the Midcoast as a plein air painter, but also has a long history with architectural

work, too. For MASS MoCA, she was asked to capture the building as it looked before

being renovated from a historic mill into an exhibition space. What makes the work

stand out is the scale and medium: the painting was done in watercolors and is 15

feet wide. The piece has been up since 2017, but the museum just released a new

short film that shows what a significant undertaking it was. Prey recalls what it was like

to paint what is believed to be the world’s largest watercolor.

It's our 25th anniversary at the gallery in Port Clyde. I have a couple of 40-by-60-inch

paintings in that show, so I do very large paintings. But this really pushed me bigger

than 40-by-60. I don't think anything like this has ever been done in watercolor. The

painting is 300 pounds. It's nine by 16 feet.

To do something on that scale is really epic. It's three panels that are put together.

That's the largest watercolor paper that I could find. Everything was scaled up. The

paint was scaled up. More paint, larger everything. I had to get new brushes. I bought

two-inch and four-inch watercolor brushes. I was pretty surprised but I would use my

little number-seven brushes by Windsor Newton, too.

It was a two-year process. It was the process of drawing it and figuring out what to do.

I did 30 studies before I painted the final painting. Then I moved it up to

Williamstown. I went up there, and I lived there. I loved that I was up at like 6 and

started work, and would work all day. I lived with the painting.