ACADIA ~ Mountains, Islands & Sea

After a full tilt spring & summer painting and teaching I am reviewing field sketches and segueing into my fall painting mode. I'll be painting some larger paintings this winter from these sketches. Here are a few tidbits from my Acadia National Park trips.

We drove up from southern Maine and when we arrived at Mt Desert Is. it was early evening - just in time to get up to the Blue Hill overlook to catch the sun before it set. We were hoping this sunset promised good weather !

Here I am the next day just beyond Sand Beach. It's awesome painting on the park loop road in Acadia National Park- you can pull your car over in the right lane and park. I set up like this to save time and go to many locations in one day.

This was a view of Otter Cliffs that I could see from the road. Here's the 8-10 min sketch I did in markers & watercolor. This summer is the first time I painted outdoors in water color. It is so fast its mind boggling.

After I finished the watercolor I did a 20 min field sketch in oils. Then I packed up and drove to the next location.

The weather was changing the whole time. Hey, its part of the territory ! I set up on the road again at Otter Cove. Here is the 10 min watercolor sketch.

My wonderful husband Marcus came on this trip and he took the pictures of me painting. Here I am in the thick of painting my 20 min field sketch. I love doing these as I learn so much and can go to many different locations in a day. You can tell by my gloves it was windy & cold on the water... I stayed warm by painting !

Thunder & Tobacco

I took a short road trip to Hatfield & Whatley, MA; small towns in the Pioneer Valley in western Massachusetts. Thunder storms rushing in from the Berkshires shortened my painting and sketching time. A field and tobacco barn in Whatley before the rain hit.

It was really great to see these clouds roll out of the foot hills across the flat area of the Connecticut River Valley. You could see the lightening and hear the thunder from clouds way back in the Berkshires.

Here are the super quick sketches I did of the edge of the storm just arriving and after the rain at the diner ( with gray tone markers and a field sketch water color box.) I am trying out at least 5 brands of paint right now. This is Sakura. Nice handy box and great water barrel brush but the colors don't touch Daniel Smith's.

I had no time to even set up to paint when the rain hit and blasted through the valley. By the time we got to the Whatley Diner everything was drenched and the sky was beginning to clear.

The next morning on our way back to Maine cool air and puffy clouds were floating above the fields in North Hatfield. It was a perfect summer day.

A quick road and barns sketch with the Sakura Koi box. These are all on basic all purpose drawing paper.

The tobacco barns are such nice classic worn structures and add a strong visual geometry to the wide vistas.
On this short trip time & weather limited me to sketches and watercolors . The last two sketches are the same location slightly different design and with Daniel Smith colors. Love these paints. I can use any old brush, any old paper and the colors sing. If I ever meet Daniel Smith I will hug & kiss him !

Acadia National Park ~ Rain in Paradise

Acadia National Park was in fog and rain for days on end.

We set up to paint on the shore of Eagle Lake. Everyone was on vacation and the carriage paths were full of families biking in the rain. Who cares! The little kids loved riding through the big puddles getting soaked.

My rain set up on the beach of Eagle Lake.

Vicki painted from the carriage path parking lot at Eagle Lake.

I’d dash out in-between the raindrops to make sketches of Eagle Lake.

The tide was rising on Schoodic Point but the sun didn’t break through the bright fog.

I came home with 16 field sketches and Marcus looked at them and said, “Who wants a painting of fog and rain? “ Too funny!

Loosening Up in Kennebunkport, Turbat's Creek & Cape Porpoise, Maine

Early evening on the lawn of the Breakers I did a quick sketch to focus and decide on the motif of my painting. It was a beautiful, calm evening, a pleasant temperature, with a bit of sunlight hitting the trees. I was looking north into the harbor with clouds along the horizon.

There was a large party closeby on the lawn under tents and I wanted to do a 20 min field sketch. I knew I'd have interruptions and knew I'd also loose my light real fast!

I started out following the sketch. I painted on a 6x8 panel. I was about 15min into it placing a couple of boats in the fore ground when I decided the detailing of the boats was making the composition look cluttered. I was getting more onlookers at this point and people were starting to chat so I put a few highlights and accents in and called it a wrap. Here's the finished pochade. (Kennebunkport Harbor Evening , 6x8, o/p SOLD)

The next day I went to Turbat's Creek to paint and the place was awesome - a piece of old Maine seacoast tucked hidden in Kennebunkport! I walked around and looked at all the different views. There were many paintings to be painted at this great location.

The top sketch is of some of the fish cottages on Turbat's Creek. My focus was the great looking fishing shacks.

The lower sketch is looking out to sea at the mouth of Turbat's Creek.



These two sketches also made at Turbat's Creek were looking north out across the creek toward Vaghan's Island and east toward the tip of the island and the mouth of the creek.

A week later, I decided to do a color exercise with the black and white sketches.

I usually use the sketches on location as I paint my oil field studies but here in the studio on a rainy day I limited myself to a different palette of colored pencils. It was a great exercise. And it really makes the mind work when the color you want is not available to use nor can you mix it!

Checkout the difference in the colored pencil and black and white sketches above - these are the original sketches with color added.

It was a challenge to not have my usual three colors (yellow, red & blue) at my disposal to mix any color I wanted. It was also a great way to see how I think in color and how I use color. I was stuck with using a pencil of a fixed color to try and substitute it for another color I would normally mix to get the effect and mood I was after. It was fun and liberating to do this exercise !

Day I ~ The Plein Air Painters Invitational ~ Kennebunkport

The Maine Art Gallery hosted the Plein Air Painters Invitational as part of Arts in the Inns in Kennebunkport, ME. Thirteen painters arrived from all over the country to paint for 3 days in the Kennebunks and Cape Porpoise. My day's painting schedule started with a bright location in the marshes at Rachel Carson.

For a sketch at Parsons Beach at midday the light and clouds were already changing.


When I parked in the afternoon to paint on the Mousam River it was overcast.


While painting a quick sketch of the Pineapple in dry dock the sun peaked through around 6pm.




I started my last painting of the day at the mouth of the harbor in Kennebunkport at 800 pm. During the day I painted 6x8's, 8x10's and 9x12 's. It was a long day.

Day IV ~ The Opening & the Luminaries

The opening was in the Gallery on Chase Hill, a great spot overlooking the harbor. Marcus came so I'm in some of the pictures. Here I am with artists John Caggiano and Lori Putnam.

John caught up with his old friend Stapleton Kearns. He and Stapleton go back 30 years. They both lived and had galleries on Bearskin Neck in Rockport, MA. John's galllery is still there at # 66. Stapleton now lives in NH.
A pause with Stefan Pastuhov. Stefan hails from Linconville, ME.

Gallery manager Amy Boucher stopped to visit with Anthony Watkins and me. Anthony painted a portrait of artist Lucia deLeiris in the garden of the Nonatum just before he arrived at the opening!

Artist Kathy Delumpa Allegri of Portland OR. might be the artist who traveled the farthest to the invitational. Here she is with some of the watercolors she painted during the week.

To see the paintings on view in the Gallery at Chase Hill http://www.maine-art.com/OnlineShow.asp

Day II ~ Champagne & Artists in Kennebunkport

Thursday was sunny and warm for the Tattinger champagne reception in the evening on the lawn of the Breakers. Four artists painted the view from the lawn during the reception, Leonard Mizerek , Joan van Roden White, Stapleton Kearns and myself. Here artists Lori Putnam and Anthony Watkins chat as Leonard Mizerek (in the background wearing the brimmed hand) paints lobster boats in the harbor as guests head over to watch him work on the painting.

Three tents housed the food, drinks, guests and paintings on display.

Artists Anthony Watkins, Stefan Pastuhov and Paul Goodnow chatted with Stapleton Kearns as he painted a view of the harbor from the lawn's edge.


Here's my 6x8" sketch looking at Kennebunkport Harbor. I set up my EasyL behind Stapleton and looked to my right for a clear view of my subject. I set my timer and painted for 20 min. to keep it fresh and keep me focused as artists and collectors watched us paint and chatted with us .

Day III ~ Turbats Creek & Walker Point

Turbats Creek is a real treasure ! It’s a piece of Maine that used to be the norm around here. Up north you can find fish shacks but I didn’t know there were any around here till Paul, John & Stapleton painted them on Wednesday.

While painting at Walker Point the fog drifted in and out from a big fog bank out over the open water.

The view looking south from Walker’s Point toward Thunder Hole.

Turbats Creek has a village of fish shacks on stilts that at high tide are sitting over water. They are used as cottages for the summer months. Awesome places! A local told me they are called “sweep outs”.

Three of us were painting down by the boat launch. This location was so popular this week I think 1/3 of the painters went to paint there.

Spring in Acadia National Park

Acadia was spectacular these past few days! It wasn’t too crowded and it appeared I was the only artist painting in the park. Visitors from all over the world stopped to chat and snap a picture. The weather changed on a dime. When it was sunny it was great! The temps were chilly up high and along the coast. The wind picked up as the cold front headed in. My easel blew over once – I didn’t have it tucked in enough behind the car. The hikers and bikers were having a blast as they were building up some heat with their activities.



Here is Frenchman’s Bay in the late morning before the wind started tearing through. The water has an iridescent luminous quality till the winds build. You can catch it in early am and at dusk.


Eagle Lake looked fabulous when the clouds cleared out.


I stayed at my favorite place the “artist’s motel” - The Robbins Motel on rte 3 on the way into downtown Bar Harbor. Its old fashioned, cheap and super clean (spring special $32 a night).I ran into Jack (the owner) as I loaded up the car for a day out in the wilds.


Sunset from the Blue Hill overlook on Cadillac Mountain is a big event. I stopped by to scope out the location and noticed the sun and sky colors were getting nice. Then as the light started to get dramatic the parking suddenly filled up. Piles of people went out on the rock ledge to watch as the sky put on a show. It was a festive event.


I painted 2 5x7’s till the sun went down then headed over to the other side of Cadillac to watch the village lights come on all over Frenchman’s Bay.