sandy colors

Hurricane Sandy was multicolored down here in Maine. The sketch above was done quickly before the last high tide which would have got me wet while painting. Now, the surf is diminished and the power lines are still up. But you get the idea.
Unhappily, color was not the issue down off Cape Hatteras, where HMS Bounty sank. Although 14 of her crew members were rescued by the Coast Guard, one crew member died, and her Captain remains unfound. Here in Boothbay, the Bounty was a fixture last month; her masts stuck up proudly, above what we might call our skyline, while on the ways at the Shipyard. Everyone here has had some contact with the ship or her crew, and we are all very sad.
Images of Sandy from now on, will undoubtedly reflect this sadness... even as I make a bigger painting from this sketch...

a new launch!

the tug, Winslow, will pull the new tug from her cradle....

and she won't get stuck like the first one I watched 3 years ago...

and then, she's in...

by herself...

she's really quite cute, as a tugboat goes...East Boothbay is proud, and there'll be some celebrating tonight!

Stewardship and Snow Showers

Our first frost happened two nights ago, on the very evening we had the opening for the Art in Maine show at the Art Foundation in the Harbor. "Snow Showers," the painting above, was juried in, and though it won no prizes, I am very pleased with its presence in the show. Several people have asked for giclees of it, so I will make 3-4, and see if I can sell them.
It is painted directly onto raw linen, and has a very textural, 3-D feel to it, which Dan Corey has called regal. I like that, and hope that because the paint is embedded in the fabric, that it will hold its tone and color for a long time.
Non-profit institutions, like art, have the same preservation issues - if you don't find enough money, you soon run out of creative material and/or helpful efforts. Tom Dewey, at our local congregational church, has challenged members of the church to multiply our "talents", as in the "parable of the talents," by handing out envelopes filled either with a heart candy, $10 or $20. The challenge is to multiply whatever is in the envelope, or, of course, you can bury it.
I got an envelope with a $20 in it. I have put it into a peanut butter jar with a hole in the top, and am collecting money to begin an emergency fund at the local food pantry. In one short week I gathered over $176, so now I have put $100 in one jar, and am working on getting the remaining $24 for the second jar, and will just keep going until the Sunday in November when we have to bring it all back in and report.
I am learning some interesting lessons while I do this. At a community gathering recently, I got out my jar at the end of the meal and went around asking people to "empty your pockets to fill a belly." I got a fair amount of money and was content to sit back down and eat dessert, when the fellow next to me started asking me about how we handled "freeloaders" at the Pantry. I was a bit offended, not really knowing any freeloaders who were receiving  food at our pantry. So I gave him a cocky reply about not getting many homeless men at the pantry. He gave me a look, knocked on his glass, stood up and announced to the crowd that I had not made $100 quite yet, and we needed to do that before anyone went home. Amazingly enough, people came flocking over and coughed up even more money, such that we made $135 or so dollars in just that one night.
I remain amazed and very grateful to the Boothbay Harbor Yacht Club for their generosity.

moose work

I had such a good time at Daicey Pond in Baxter State Park, under the shadow of Mt. Ktaadn, that all my pics are quite cheerful...enjoy...

Ledge Falls is a series of wonderful, gentle falls over very smooth granite ledges. They are crowded with people sliding down them in the summer. This day on late September, they were gorgeous, warm and sunny, but not tempting to swim down.

This is Sandy Stream Pond looking up at the two great basins of Ktaadn. Pamola Peak, named for the Abnaki's evil god, is on the left, and is the northeastern end of the Knife Edge.The Knife Edge goes from there to the middle peak, which is the tallest and is named Baxter Peak, though the Abnaki's called it Ktaadn, for the good, kind god. The Saddle extends along the western side of the mountain.

I was painting this little pic when the bull moose came upon me. I remain very grateful that he did not choose to destroy me and the painting! But it is good moose territory!

This is Ktaadn as seen from our Daicey Pond campsite. It is much more representative of what the mountain actually feels like. It is very big, like the moose, and is often very intimidating. Its weather is unpredictable and highly changeable. But Percy Baxter did a wonderful thing for us State of Mainers when he preserved it forever wild. We are responsible for ourselves when we are visiting the Park, whether climbing or fishing or painting. We pack everything in and everything out.

I remain a bit anxious over my encounter with the bull moose, though I know they are generally not aggressive. Even so, all by myself, in rutting season, I felt quite vulnerable and definitely not in control - which is what the Park is good for remembering!