Sculpting the Shoreline

Elena Rossi's studio sits at the end of a long mill row in Pawtucket. The light there is northern and steady — she chose the building for it.

"I'm not painting the ocean," she says, mixing a wash the color of cold January air. "I'm painting the way the salt feels on my skin when I walk back up from the rocks."

Her new series, six large canvases shown together for the first time at RIAM's spring feature, was built up over four months from drawings made at dawn.