Largely stripped of their features, both the women and the nondescript clapboard house they occupy, are archetypes, according to Barnet—symbols of fabled New England steadfastness. In the background, the shoreline, sea, and sky are simply rendered with flat swaths of paint.

Inspired by his familial ties to Maine, Barnet’s series of women along the shore represents his return to figurative painting but continues his exploration of creating illusions of space, an interest he developed when painting abstractly.