I am thrilled to be back painting after our recent move. This summer has been great despite a few weeks of rain in Maine. I have painted every possible moment it seems. You just have to go when the weather is right. Yesterday it was lovely and then the clouds rolled up Somes Sound and then spilled over Beach and the Western Mountain range. So you have a blue sky with these wispy grey clouds with patches of bright sun as well. I have been waiting for this day to paint from my friend Nan's house. I left about 6:45 AM and took my outboard to her house which is only accessible by a hike or boat. I had such a great morning trying to capture her view before it changed. I have done one painting from her house before and everyone is always drawn to the view. As a bonus Nan made me a crepe filled with blackberrry jam. What a treat it was. Her jam is like no other with blackberries, a few blueberries and she sometimes mixes in some of her strawberrry jam to get just the right taste. Here is my view of Beech Mountain from Nan's.
This summer I have done fourteen plein-air paintings. I began by myself and then my childhood friend Alexandra Tyng ( Alex) joined me for three weeks of painting. So far we have done two paintings on Ocean Drive of Otter Cliffs, two paintings of Long Pond from the Ripples Road, two paintings from Cadillac Mountain, one from Loapus Point, a street scene in Southwest Harbor and a view from Eagle Lake. We have fought off the bugs, wind, and elements!!! My easel and backpack have worked really well and we are all ready to go to Monhegan to paint for a week. What I really love about my setup is that my easel can be bungeed on my backpack, and my gamsol, brushes, and paper towels can be placed in a wooden silverware box on my easel. I drilled holes in the box and used picture wire to tie it to the center of my easel in three places. It has withstood huge winds on the top of Cadillac! I used my camera and backpack to weight my easel and it was great.
