MONG
Watercolor paintings depicting Jamestown’s beauty are garnering thousands of likes on social media.
Donald Mong, a former East Greenwich police officer, began posting on the wall of a Jamestown community Facebook page in 2019. Among his postings are the Jamestown Windmill, Fort Wetherill, Windmist Farm and even bygone landmarks, like the Brenton Reef Light and the ferryboat Jamestown.
“They get over 300 likes. I don’t even have that many Facebook friends,” Mong quipped.
Prior to his social media presence, Mong had been painting local scenes for more than 20 years, and designed a poster for the Beavertail Lighthouse Museum. Originally from Greenville, Ohio, he has been painting since high school, when he was inspired by his mechanical drawing teacher.
“It was amazing how he could recreate these illustrations of mechanical components,” he said. “From that day forward, I would just sketch, draw, doodle and paint.”
Mong moved to Rhode Island in 1982 and worked as a commercial diver. He joined the East Greenwich police force in 1987, and would sketch car accidents as an accident investigator.
ABOVE: A watercolor painting by Donald Mong of Windmist Farm looking east from North Road toward the Pell Bridge. The Belted Galloway cows are known as Oreo cows because of their color pattern. BELOW: A watercolor painting by Mong of the ferryboat Jamestown tied up at the East Ferry landing. This painting was done using a historical photograph as a reference.
In 1999, Mong was injured in a patrol car accident, and while he was out of work, he saw a television report about the Beavertail Lighthouse. He decided to draw the landmark. His wife showed the painting to one of her friends in Jamestown, and the friend liked it so much, it was gifted to her. He then went to the lighthouse to paint en plein air, and he gave his work to an impressed bystander who had been watching him work.
“I honed my drawing skills by drawing accident scenes, but I found that painting lighthouses and other cool places was my happy place,” he said. “You can sit down, and paint or draw there, and next thing you know, two or three hours have just gone by.”
About 20 years ago, Mong was put in contact with the late Jim Filkins, who invited him to contribute a poster to the Beavertail Lighthouse Museum.
“I was really flattered because I’m a self-taught artist,” he said. “One thing led to another and I painted this poster of 15 lighthouses all over Rhode Island. They sold like 2,000 of these posters over several years, and I was blown away by how people liked it.”
After Mong retired from the East Greenwich police force in 2008, painting began to take up more of his time. He used to paint in oil, acrylic, pastel and charcoal, but eventually settled on watercolor to simplify his process and materials while also using a sketchpad.
“I can carry around in a small bag everything I need to do watercolors,” he said. “I don’t need to have an easel or a big palette to paint on. I don’t have to worry about something drying. To me, it’s more manageable.”
In addition to Jamestown scenes, Mong also paints fighter pilot helmets, U.S. Coast Guard patrol boats and old photographs of his Ohio hometown. He posted his first watercolor sketch in May 2019, and began adding them at a higher frequency in November.
The Beavertail Lighthouse is his most prolific scene because Mong became interested in the beacons of New England during his tenure as a diver. One of his sketches was of the old Jamestown Ferry, which transported passengers across the East Passage of Narragansett Bay in the days before the Newport Bridge. After painting the ferry from a reference photograph, he posted his sketch to the page and the comment section became filled with Jamestown residents recollecting their memories of riding the ferry.
“The ferry boat was my school bus going to high school,” Paul Balzer wrote.
“It brought back these people’s memories,” Mong said. “They would have never thought about that unless they’d seen that picture. It kind of rekindled all these cool memories.”
As a diver, Mong used to work off the Brenton Reef Light, a platform similar to an oil rig that was placed at the mouth of Narragansett Bay in 1962 just off Newport’s Brenton Point State Park; it was deactivated in 1989 and scrapped as an artificial reef in 1993.
Mong decided to paint the old light station because it brought back memories of his diving days, particularly of the sea life he could see in the clear water near the tower. He recalled seeing tropical fish that were caught in the Gulf Stream during storms.
The most recent painting Mong shared in the group is a watercolor scene featuring Belted Galloway cows grazing at Windmist Farm with the Pell Bridge in the background. The painting has received more than 300 likes and 80 comments since he posted it Jan. 22. Mong called it “one of the most beautiful views on the whole island next to Beavertail.”
“Love seeing your pictures on here,” wrote Terry Summers. “You do such a great job.”
“You are so talented,” added Sally Schott.
“Keep them coming,” Marge Caswell said.
Mong said he is grateful for the positive reception his paintings have received from residents. He has no specific plans on what he’ll paint next, but he has been looking through images of other historic Jamestown places and landmarks.
“I’m just overwhelmed by how nice people have been and their positive comments,” he said. “I just like to sketch and draw, and try to recreate things that I think people would like.”