Salt, Seaweed and Quiet in East Boothbay

I've wanted to paint with Plein Air Painters of Maine since I first found them while searching for local painters on the internet...

It is the only plein air group that paints regularly in the state of Maine. 

They paint every week somewhere in midcoast or western Maine. I went up to Boothbay to paint with them.

  There is only one road from southern Maine to the midcoast region. It is coastal Route 1, a small two lane highway with spectacular views. 

The midcoast region of Maine is very different from southern Maine where I live.  In the south one is close to the open ocean. We have crashing surf and lots of wind.  To reach the open ocean in midcoast Maine you have to drive down a long pennisula before you see it.

When we arrived at the PAPME painting location on Boothbay Shores along the Damariscotta River we discovered Suzanne Brewer painting on the beach!  

We parked the car nearby, set up and went to work. 

The sun was warm and the cool breeze off the water was pleasant. 

The area was quiet. We saw a handful of walkers and bikers. Every now and then a car drove by. Working boats went up and down the river and in and out of Ocean Harbor. 

Marcus set up next to me to paint with acrylics. Brave guy ! He has no experience painting, never mind painting outside.  He is hoping to become good enough to enjoy it and maybe become a Sunday painter... like Winston Churchill who enjoyed plein air painting as a way to de-stress from his overwhelming responsibilities.  

Painting en plein air can be very calming. Its so demanding that you have to give it your full attention and forget everything else.   Zen mind, painters mind!

Boothbay was a new location for me so I decided to paint 4 small field studies of 4 different views.

There  was a nice variety of things to paint without even moving from our spot. 

Now that it's almost the summer solstice the sun feels like its at high noon for hours.

Marcus focused intently as he placed the different colors on his field sketches.

As the sun shifted into the west I finished my sketches and started to pack up.  A SUV drove up and a woman got out and said "Mary?" It was Corinne McIntyre a founder of Plein Air Painters of Maine ! She heard that I had arrived after she left that morning so she drove over to meet me!  

She  offered to  take us on a tour around the tip of the pennisula and show me other painting locations. We drove the entire loop road on the pennisula. The views were gorgeous. Islands were scattered across the water.

Corinne showed us a nice trail along the water to great painting locations on Grimes Cove.

This area is a very old seaside summer community.  The roads are right along the water. You can park right on the edge of the sea and enjoy the view. 

Three trees is a distinctive and well known spot.

Before we left East Boothbay we stopped at Corinne's home and Ocean Point Studio/Gallery. It was chock full of her paintings of Boothbay and midcoast. What a delight ! I'm heading back later this summer to visit her and paint some of these lovely places.

Ocean Breezes at Wolfe's Neck Farm

The morning air was fresh and cool as we headed up the coast to Wolfe's Neck Farm. This place is gorgeous.It is on a penninsula east of Freeport, Me.

I'm one of eight painters participating in a plein air event at the farm for ten days in June. There is a multitude of subject matter to choose from. I could paint here for a week and not run out of great views .

This is an old working farm. A little blue tractor was parked in the driveway when we arrived.

Across the road a pasture full of buttercups was the home of a small herd of Belted Galloways.

Down the road a bit the open view of the bay with islands sprinkled across it was spectacular !

On the opposite side of the road was a view of a small tidal river,open meadows, woods and farm houses on the hills in the distance.

There was so much to choose from and so little time. I set up and started painting a view of the bay.  I liked the feeling of the huge expanse of water and sky.

The tide was coming in fast. Marcus set out to explore the edge of a cove.

It was so quiet. No one was around. We were surrounded by fields, woods and water. It was  hard to believe how close we were to Freeport the shopping mecca and the headquarters of L.L. Bean. 

I blocked in my design choosing to paint the tide half way in.

The air was filled with the songs of birds that filled the meadows and trees. 

The sun was moving high overhead in the sky toward noon. I had to keep moving my easel so the panel and my palette were in the shade. The light was really bright.  

Marcus returned from his hike and settled into a comfortable chair to do a drawing of the dirt road and high, hilly meadows on either side. 

I kept developing the painting, adding more color notes.

The light and shadows on the trees and rocks along the edge of the cove was really nice before noon.

Shortly after noon we were suddenly surrounded by visitors. My quiet spot was a hub of bustling activity.  A small group drove by quietly and slowly to view my painting...

 A grandfather out for a walk on the beach with his little grandson stopped to chat and look at my work. 

The next door neighbor of the farm brought her dog for his daily swim.  She came by to see what I was doing.  

I kept painting, getting all the information I needed. I was no longer in a secluded, quiet place. It was the rush hour for recreation!

A man arrived with a folding boat on his car. He set it up, loaded his lobster traps in it and set off down the creek out into the bay.

As the tide came in a large group of horse shoe crabs swam in on it and gathered along the edge of the creek. It was a spot they really liked.

I stepped back to get a good view of my painting. When I'm painting I always step away from the painting to give me a better perspective on what I've done. I saw I had enough information on my panel to stop. Now I could bring it home and put the finishing touches on it in the studio.  

I thought it would be a good time to drive around other areas of the farm to scout out painting locations for the rest of the week. As I looked up the river the tide was almost all the way in.

 

The buttercups in a meadow across from the barn were amazing.  This meadow has millions of them this year. Usually there aren't any at all here. 

A farmer brought in a new group of Belted Galloways in a big truck.  After they were unloaded he walked around the meadow with them talking to them. He was  helping them get comfortable in their new location. 

I sketched at different locations all over the farm until the sun started to drop in the western sky. 

The tide was going back out...it was so nice to see the patterns in the acres of sand.

The islands formed moody clusters in beautiful muted colors. Everything was in shades of gray blue, violet and rose.

As the sun sunk below the distant trees we called it a day and headed down the dirt road toward home.

Salt, Surf & Fog

After a really long cold spring summer arrived in one day.  It got hot . Everything bloomed at once. The sky was clear and cloudless. At my house 8 miles in from the coast, the thermometer went up to 82.  It felt too hot!

I wanted to paint in a cool spot right on the open water so I headed over to the Nubble in York Beach, Maine. The Nubble is this huge chunk of rock on the northern end of Long Sands Beach.  On the very end of this peninsula is a picturesque light house.  It sits on top of another smaller chunk of rock. 

When I got to the coast I needed to put on every piece of extra clothing I had in my car.  It was a chilly 60 degrees on the water! I was happy.

My polar tech vest was zipped to my chin and I wished I had packed my wool scarf.

The warm air temperature from the land and the cold ocean air were manufacturing fog where they collided.  

Way off in the distance over the water we could see a huge fog bank . 

I did a quick sketch of the light house.

6x12 oil on canvas

The tide turned and started to come in.  As that happened the fog bank started coming ashore.  

Soon the light house was only a faint ghost of its former self. The fog horn started blowing. 

I turned and started painting the large waves crashing against the rocks below me. 

Big waves, 6x8 oil on panel

The wind picked up. The fog got thicker. It got really cold. 

The fog was so thick and wet it was coating everything, my eye glasses were useless.  I could see the painting better without them.  Fog dripped off the tailgate onto my head. 

It wasn't even maximum high tide and the waves kept crashing in closer. A mixture of fog and salt spray filled the air. 

I put the last notes on my sketch. The moisture was dripping down the front of the easel on to my paints.

Time to clean up !

The wind was blowing harder and I was wishing I had a extra sweater to put on ! 

Even the tourists weren't hanging out in this chilly damp blast,  we had the place almost to ourselves.

The surf was really beautiful as it washed over huge shelves of rock along the edge of the Nubble. 

The wind tore my hat off my head as I stowed my paint box and easel. 

  I know why I live in Maine close to the Atlantic Ocean. There is nothing else like it.  Mystery, mood, atmosphere, drama, huge forces of nature, and that constantly changing scene on the edge of the continent.

Fog, Surf & Granite. 8x10 oil on panel