real work?

I've been playing with some of the images of the summer. This one, for instance, I drew while sitting at a picnic table in Shipbuilders' Park here in EBB. Then, I took it home and have tried adding some appropriate color. I'd love to ask you who are reading this blog, 

which image do you like better?

It's been a busy summer ( I just finished canning my first batch of tomatoes) but there has been time to work on my "postcards," images which I like to do en plein air. I enjoy making these images, sitting outside and working small has a very Zen-like quality. But they don't always achieve the level of high art - hence, I call them "postcards."

This image of Fishermans Island is a different style. I've used just my Tombo pens and a watercolor brush to wash the image once it is drawn.The trouble with the Tombos is that the ink fades radically if placed in even indirect light. So these images become some of my best giclee images, which do not fade. The trouble is that people don't understand the difference here between an "original" which might fade in a month, and a giclee print which will stay intact for years. So I just continue making images, scanning them into the computer so I can print them when a giclee is wanted.

In the meantime, I try to catch the beauty boats whenever they show up in a place where I can see them. Here is Sumurun, a lovely big boat that sails each year in the Shipyard Cup, in early August, here in Boothbay Harbor. The fog was a problem this year, so I have no gorgeous photos, only this drawing of Sumurun, tied up at Hodgdon's yard here in EBB. She's a pleasure to see. 

busy, busy summer

This little sauna building is on an island called Ristisaari in the Finnish archipelago, in the Baltic Sea. Two weeks ago, I returned from the island to Helsinki, having spent three days on the island happily drawing (soon to be shown), having saunas and eating splendid meals cooked on a grill on the porch of the main cabin on this little island. When we weren't sauna-ing or sleeping or eating, we went visiting other people on other islands all around the bay we were in. It was quite idyllic.

This island trip was part of a longer trip to Finland to visit friends from the Queen Mary trip in 2006. Two years ago, Raili and Markku Pimia, and Pirkko and Simo Helander came here to East Boothbay to visit (and fish) over Labor Day weekend. This year it was my turn, together with Jane and George Metzger, to go to Finland. It was a wonderful trip. We don"t know where the next gathering will be, but there will be another!

Perhaps Alaska????

Here is the main cabin on Ristisaari. Like most rural buildings in Finland, it is log, with a big main room, a kitchen off the main room, and a bunk room in back of the kitchen. It is about the same size as the smoke sauna we used at Kierke, the lodge we went to in the lake country. A smoke sauna is one of the gentlest saunas you can imagine, though it sounds tough. In a largish log cabin, a brick fire box sends its smoke up through the rocks piled on top of the fire box. The smoke heats the rock and fills the room, but as soon as you pour water on the hot rock, the steam banishes the smoke (somehow), and you are left with a moist, gentle, very hot sauna, after which you go jump in a lake, or the Baltic Sea.

Finland was not just about what we did in the countryside, or out on the island, there was also Helsinki, its design flavor and the wonderful piano concert we had from Juho Polhonen. But more about that later. Coming home I was faced with the need to paint an Adirondack chair for the Y fundraising auction on August 24th. I had decided to try painting a plaid pattern, but had no idea how time consuming it would turn out to be. It took me 4 1/2 days to paint this puppy, and I would do it again only for an exorbitant amount of money. But I am pleased with how it looks, even with the pattern diversions.

enough for now...I've made dilly green bean pickles already from the garden uber-abundance, and must continue to try and catch up to the garden, which languished with the weeds in my almost 3 week absence. The raspberries are gone into the neighbors' freezers I hope, but the blueberries are still just coming, and a fine crop it is, too. The cukes are in full production, as is the zucchini, the lettuces and beets. Tomatoes are jusy starting to ripen, but hopefully will not allow the weeds to smother them. At any rate, there's work to be done, and paintings to be made of this wonderful summer... Happy trails to all of you...

amazing summer

Last week I spent on Damariscove Island, whose harbor you can see here in early evening. The Boothbay Region Land Trust owns the island minus the old Coast Guard Station you see here at the mouth of the harbor. Each summer, two caretakers reside on the island for 10 days, then they get 4 days off. Over this Fourth of July week, they had five days off and Marianne Reynolds, Commodore of the BH Yacht Club this year, and I were substitute caretakers for the week.

It was a glorious week though the weather was not perfect. The birds were numerous, especially yellow birds - warblers and goldfinches; the composting toilets worked they way they should; we had plenty of good drinking water which we brought with us; the muskrats were not so numerous that they bothered. The red ants, however, were pesky. They were imported from some boat sometime in the last few years and have taken over some sandy parts of the island. They are a good lesson on how difficult it can be to maintain a balance on an island when a new species of predator - bug or otherwise - is introduced. Chickens seemed to help a few years ago, when caretakers brought them out for their stint on the island. But we had no chickens to bring.

Still, the weather was glorious one day, and it brought many people out on 12 or so boats. They cycled through the tiny harbor with some grace; kids played on the beach and swam like crazy for the water is warm this year; I got to play harbor master and trash collector in a courtesy dinghy. The little museum was open and got a lot of visitors, and kudos for the information there.

That night though, was the full moon. I slept on my boat and woke at five in the am, at dead low tide, to some bumping - not a happy feeling aboard a boat. Peering out of the hatch, I faced the lowest stones of the large stone pier in the middle of the harbor, and realized I was hitting the edge of those stones, albeit gently. Looking out toward the 3 sailboats anchored at the mouth of the harbor, however, I realized that one of them was aground and teetering on the rocks. The people on the boat knew what they were doing however, and waited patiently for the tide to come back in, and the boat floated off in about a half hour. It made for an exciting beginning to an otherwise gloomy day - our only one.

Gloomy days on an island far offshore have their own pleasures. A good book or two, and hike in the fog made our day passable, the birdsong our NPR. A few lobster boats came in to restock their lines with more pots, so we asked if anyone had any lobsters for sale. There were none that day, but the next day, which dawned foggy and then cleared, Bill Hallinan brought us 4 not so soft lobsters for lunch. We sat in the sun on the little cabin's deck and ate them, cooked in seawater, and nothing is as delicious as lobsters eaten that way!

Our stay ended the way it began - with glorious weather, early in the morning. We sailed ever so quietly on very little wind, back into the bustle of Boothbay Harbor. It was an extraordinary week.

Can hearts be broken with pleasure?

My heart nearly broke with pleasure today as I received the top two images from my son. They are images my two oldest grandaughters painted in school this year. Their artists' statements clearly elucidate their paintings, and I quote here from Merry's statement; she has the topmost image:

"I guess the painting/drawing stands for nature. The reason its called The Cross because you can kind of see a cross. That part stands for peace so it kind of stands for Care For the World." I rest my case...!

The middle image is Sarah Kate's; her statement is as follows:

"My Grandma inspired me to do this picture. She loves painting sailboats on the ocean. She has tons of paintings of her in her studio. So this is why I painted this painting."

If you are not a grandparent or wish to be one, perhaps you will not understand the power of their images and words. But they overwhelmed me with gratitude for them, and for my son and his wife that they have raised these two so well, so far. It is not a simple thing to raise kids to be happy, productive citizens. I did pretty well, as well as I could, and they seem to be doing the same. My heart leaps with pleasure again.

The bottom image is one of mine, whose color seems to work well in this blog. It's another version of my Monhegan workboat series. It's not a sail boat, but the color does work well here!

work hung at Ports of Italy, St. Andrew's Family Center, and River Arts in Damariscotta

It's beginning to be a lot like summer, if the rain would ever stop. Paintings that have hung, exposed, in places all winter long, are being changed out; new work is being hung all over the Harbor and up in Damariscotta. These two Valentine veges, which hung for a bit in a restaurant in Baltimore, are now going to hang in Ports of Italy, a wonderful Italian restaurant in Boothbay Harbor. Two other "postcards," 'Sunday Mass' and 'Ocean Pt summer' will also hang there, but I especially love the veges, particularly Parsnips a la Chagall (above).  But the carrots, called "Heart's Desire" is also a favorite. In that series, the 'Heart hidden in a Leek', and the 'Onion', both now belong to friends in Baltimore and Vermont.

In St. Andrew's Family Center, 3 small "snow" paintings are hanging now. They are a sequence of paintings of birch trees and a pine tree in a blizzard. I quite like them and hope to do more of them.               

And at River Arts in Damariscotta, I have a drawing of "the last vine in the row", done at the Antle's ranch in Soledad, California. It was juried into a show on Flora and Fauna, and I love that one, too. 

I have to complain a bit about the new organisation of this blogging site. I think sometimes, Google and all the other info techno companies have to keep changing things just to keep their people working. For us users, however, it often feels like - just when I've mastered something, it changes. And it gets frustrating. I liked the old format for the blog as I could see it as it was developing. I don't need to change the background or anything. It was simple and often elegant, or so it felt to me. In the meantime, bear with me as I undertake yet another learning.

Happy Mother's Day!

Fishermens' Festival!!!!

This year's Fishermens' Festival was COLD! 38 degrees when I left my house at 9ish this morning. The ocean was slightly warmer at 41 degrees, but that did not stop the tykes from running the lobstercar races. The early runners stayed mostly out of the water; it was only later that they began to fall a lot. The guys in the Whaler rescued them. But, clearly, as soon as the kids got their feet wet, they slowed down and that was the kiss of death. This race is one where it pays to be light on your feet and fast!

The lobster car race is my favorite. But the others are fun, too, to watch. The high schoolers dress in boots and waders and race around a block holding large codfish. The sternmen of the lobster crews race each other shovelling bait into barrels. Other school kids bail dinghys. Lobstermen themselves race their boats to haul, bait and toss back 6 traps in line, starting from the docks. And then there's the tug of war - a real Scottish-type one with a long hemp line and many people on either end. How they choose up sides is still a mystery to me, but it never seems to matter who wins. It's all a good time.

Later we will all enjoy too much food and drink. There's a fish fry, lobster bake, a new raw bar with oysters, shrimp rolls and coffee. I'm off now to take my chowder to the church chowder and buckle supper. (If you don't know what buckle is, around here it's made with blueberries and a biscuit-like dough, on which you put ice cream. Not that I am eager for ice cream after the chill of this morning!)

Tomorrow, on Sunday, there will be a public reading of the names of local men who have been lost at sea, followed by a Blessing of the Fleet, a long-time tradition by the clergy of this town. The fleet parades by the Catholic Church, the closest to the water, and blessings are read, said, and sung. This year has a poignancy to it, because one of the grandfathers of the fleet, Earl Brewer, was lost off Spruce Point in a fog this past week.

So here's little Matt Duncan running 6 times back and forth from dock to boat to dock again, for a total of 243 cars. He didn't win, but he set a high standard for the rest. His brother, in street clothes no less, only made it to 206 before he fell in!



waiting for forsythia

In the gray green gloom of early spring, I have been waiting patiently for the forsythia to bloom. It has - finally. In my impatient moments, I painted the birch tree with its tiny buds. I could not wait for the blazing of the forsythia, but now that it is here, I cannot find the right paint to express how eagerly it blazes. I will someday.

The forsythia was blooming in Portland, just 40 miles away a month ago. Even just 15 miles inland it has been blooming for several weeks. It is the first time that my proximity to the ocean has inhibited, rather than encouraged, plants to bloom and grow. Though the spring - everywhere it seems - has been warm and even hot at times, the ocean's nearness has moderated my miniclimate, and my forsythia has just now bloomed. I recommend patience. The forsythia is putting on a spectacular show!

The tulips are also beginning to bloom as are the daffodils. Even though the snowdrops have been in bloom since January, having larger flowers showing up, with their bigger colors, has been welcome. I have not painted flowers in a few years, like I was painting them in California, and I am eager to paint them again. It is a different flower painting tradition here than California, and I will try and interpret my East Coast flowers as if they grew in California, under an Asian influence.

The tulips I planted last fall were planted for the wedding of my son, Dan. His fiance wanted tulips for her wedding on Memorial Day weekend. Alas for them, the winter and spring has been so warm the tulips are blooming in April instead of the end of May. Unlike the forsythia, they could not wait! So for now, the wedding will be full of lilacs instead of tulips, or perhaps even peonies. Who knows what weather will happen now? Lucky for Dan and Lindsay, they are adaptable! Patience, like the forsythia's blooming with the tulips, can bring its own reward!