Letting your eye wander along the waters surface, you notice how the reflections of the white sails of boats bobbing in the wind ruffle and bend. A house hidden behind the trees beckons. You take a deep breath, inhaling the salty air and exhaling as the breeze cools your back. This is the moment to remember, you think. You feel at peace.   

You take a step back and find yourself looking into artist William Gotha’s oil painting In the Shallows, featured at his exhibit “Waterways of Cape Cod and New England” at Gallery Antonia in Chatham. You may have never visited Pleasant Bay, but as you indulge in In the Shallows, it becomes a place of comfort to you, as if you have lived in that house nestled among the trees or sailed on those boats in the water. You suddenly know the direction the trees blow in the wind, and the way that the light warms the water while you stand with your back in the shade. This immersive experience exists throughout all of Gotha’s work: his landscapes do not simply observe the Cape’s nature, but capture it.   

Gotha’s artistic process has developed over the years since he painted his first landscape at age 12. “Art was a common type of activity in my hometown of West Springfield, Massachusetts. And I really loved it. I just continued to paint all my life, I took art courses when I could, and I resumed courses when I could. I painted on vacation, painted on business trips, painted any way that I could, anytime that I could,” he recalls.   ...