Sketching at the Little Beach

Finally, an outdoor sketch! 

We weren't exactly outdoors, we were eating 

takeout sandwiches in the car,

 overlooking the little beach that is just south of here.

 

The seagulls are way too big, 

but it was they who dominated my attention. 

Six of them,

hanging out, swimming from pebbled sand, 

then riding tiny waves,

then just floating & bobbing, 

together. 

One was often apart from the group, 

but eventually joined the others...

Sketching: A Pause From Stress

7AM crowded grocery shopping 

once again triggered anxiety. 

An unhealthy looking man, 

coughing & sneezing, no mask,

lingering in the aisles. 

Scared me. 

I talked to our pleasant manager, 

but once home, tension lingered.

So I gathered my art bag

and headed to a bench in City Park.

Highlights on lively small waves,
like 4th of July sparklers, 
sun & breeze. 

View of Penobscot Bay to Blue Hill  

and the distant mountains of Acadia.

It didn't completely take away my stress, 

but for some brief moments

I breathed in healthy air. 

And sketched.

The Sketchers Get Together (but apart)

The Sketchers went down to the Library Park in Camden

(in separate cars.)

It's been many weeks since we've gotten together

(but apart.)

I usually forget to pack one item.This time: watercolors!

It turned out to be a blessing!

I loved focusing on values, lines, forms!

I would have missed seeing some wonderful qualities

if I had been distracted by paint & color!  

And I would have missed the feeling of my pen

dancing on the paper.

Behind me,
a waterfall, right in town, flows into the Harbor.

Yes, it's almost mid-May 

and I'm wearing a parka and gloves.

And loving it!

Home-Time in My Small Town

Since retirement, my home-time is very pleasurable. 

I have "stations" around the house for:

Painting • Drawing • Zumba & Exercise

Special Projects • Writing • Reading.

I am grateful for a working kitchen.

This is one time where being an Introvert comes in handy.

My life is less disrupted than are many others' lives.

In my small town the changes don't seem drastic to me,

 even though we do run out of toilet paper. 

We are lucky that we can afford to be calm & accepting.

We walk outdoors, & passersby are pleasant.

We are still a town of Hello's & waving to strangers. 

Yesterday as I was walking the Harbor Walk,

 a woman on a bench called out to me:

"We can still do this!" & she did a thumbs up,

& I replied "Yes, we are lucky!" 

and raised my thumbs to her.

 Kathy at the blog Catching Happiness 

(click Here) 

has a post about "Staying Positive..."

She mentions "Stress Cleaning."

I've been enjoying "Stress Organizing," like

taking inventory of my colored pencils. 

At some point I will do a phone order/roadside pick up 

at Fiddleheads,

my local art shop, which is closed...

Temporarily.

 Oooh, order & labels for my fountain pen inks!

(the small ones are samples I get from Goulet Pens.)

 Writing in my journal remains a daily pleasure.

On this day I was listening to France Bleu radio

& decided to create a sort of dictation & to search words
in the dictionary (Reverso online).

I just started a new Rhodia daily journal.

A new Lamy "Turmaline" fountain pen arrived from Goulet 

just before things shut down. 

Goulet is a small business with heart, 

that is paying its employees during this time. 

Voilà. 

Nice to reinforce good feelings via online networks 

in a time of physical isolation. 

How are you occupying your time 

in your "confinement" and "sheltering."?

Maine Country Road Trips

Road trips in the countryside from Midcoast Maine. 

An idyllic corner on earth.

This is the region of many small, organic farms, 

2nd or 3rd generation of back-to-the landers:

Blackbrook Farm, Many Hands Farm, 

Sunnyside, Aqua Terra, Royal View Farm...

Many of the farms supply the food coops 

in Belfast & Brooks &

 sell their produce at farm markets and

the beloved Common Ground Fair in Unity. 

The views from the hilly roller coaster roads 

leading from Belfast to Unity, Brooks, Jackson, Monro

take my breath away!

A frequent road trip out of Belfast: Route 1 South.

Last week, like a kid on summer vacation

I was so excited to drive down to Rockport with a friend.

While she went to the doctor, I sketched out the window

of a café. Then we went to the Guini Ridge Nursery

across the road road to buy plants. 

To do a little farming of our own! 

For other posts on Farmers Markets and The Common Ground Fair, click on these in Labels.

Sketches From the Back Seat

In early March I got to be a passenger along Route 1 

heading south! 

 So many times I've driven that road, sneaking glances.

So I took the opportunity to sketch! Of course!

Composing sketches while moving quickly is in some ways

like putting together a puzzle. 

I grab elements from the landscape as it whips by

and fit them in on the page. 

By the time I'm drawing individual parts

they are memory images,

but with actual references in the moving landscape.

I added some colored pencil notations in the car

and later I painted lightly with watercolors.

Observation lists 

also come in handy in such fast situations. 

Sketchbooks. End of 2018: Bring in the New, Continue the Old

 I have a new, larger sketchbook!! Paper Blanks, 7 X 9"!!

I use these for journal writing, but I got an extra one on sale

so I turned it into a sketchbook.

LAMY AL STAR fountain pens. I have "a few."

In the Wyeth Center at the Farnsworth Art Museum. 

The annual model train village, "Share the Wonder."

Sketching the mini buildings & cars is a fun way 

to work with linear perspective.

On the left: I sketched a line drawing that Jamie Wyeth

did when he was very young. Part of a series featuring

a Christmas wreath as a "character" in a medieval Christmas.

NC Wyeth's large painting: "The Morris House: Port Clyde". 

Can't do it justice with a quick sketch 

as the colors are so beautiful!!!

But sketching gave me the opportunity 

to scrutinize it more closely, & to gaze longer.

The Wyeth Center is only open a couple of more days.

I went to say good bye to the NC Wyeth paintings upstairs.

When they are back on display sometime, you have to come to Maine to see them in person!

And to see the Maine coast on which they are based!

I've been sketching in my usual 4 X 6" 

Pentallic Traveler Sketchbook.

It also doubles as my Art Learning Journal. 

Both live sketches & notes from books, 

museums, etc. go in there.

 Earlier in the month I went to the Farnsworth 

with an artist friend who wore an adorable felted hat

that she'd found at a thrift store. She sketched 

the gold dragon in the Chinese Zodiac exhibition.

She made a lot of people happy with that hat!

 Waiting in the small town post office line before Christmas.

A relatively small line in a relatively small town.

We enjoyed good natured conversations while waiting.

And for me, sketching made it go very fast.

At the Belfast Saturday Indoor Farmer's Market.

It is my Saturday morning ritual to go there. 

The vendors are not just farmers.

They are artisans, artists & musicians too.

They are local.

 LL Bean, the flagship store is like a theme park. 

There are these real stuffed animals on display.

While waiting for J to try on clothes, I sketched 

"The Three Headless Men of LL Bean." (my title.)

 Trip to Boston in November. QUICK sketches! 

It was my very fist visit to

The Granary Burying Ground. Boston's 3rd oldest cemetary

where many notable men 

from the American Revolution are buried.

 I guess the live people interested me 

more than the dead ones, though it was impressive.

 A quick stop to the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University. "Animal-Shaped Vessels from the Ancient World."

Subway Sketching, 

The Red Line from Cambridge back to Boston.

 Thanks for browsing through my sketches.

I wish you the happy pursuit of your passions

& pastimes in 2019.

Back to Acadia, Autumn, 2018

Excursion to Acadia with an art friend. 

I got to add another panel to my Moleskine accordion book.

The 1st panel created in June, 2016 

The one before yesterday's: Last May.

To see some past posts re. Acadia, click HERE. And here.

From the path down to the (large) Pond, 

from the Jordan Pond House,

where lunches, popovers & views are divine. 

The left shore. Some years ago I hiked the trail 

around the entire lake.

The shore nearby, the carmines & corals 

are waving, Look at us!

Rather than hike we walked gently along carriage paths.

 

Design, color, dancing lights & shadows, 

translucence, luminescence, 

sparkling, shimmering, glittering leaves!

In the woods a stream that flows into into Jordan Pond...

...My friend, who takes gorgeous photos, 

captured my physical surroundings: a dark shady pocket 

in the midst of sunny, brilliant color.

What she didn't know is that she had also captured a mood.

I was remembering happy times spent with a childhood friend 

with whom I used to play in our woods by the creek.

I was grieving, because

I learned of my childhood friend's death last week.

Eagle Lake, how different 

from our explorations around Jordan Pond.

Places, flora, time of day, weather, mountains, bodies of water, 

changing light, so many varied images... 

I said to my friend, 

"Sometimes the beauty seems unbearable in its immensity."

A National Park like this, open to the public, 

is one of America's treasures.

It's an enchanting glimpse of Mother Earth 

for us town & city folks.

  On the way home, a Maine Blueberry field, at sunset...

That was yesterday...

Autumn is passing through Coastal Maine.

Beth's Wildly Creative Design Workshop

 

A blissful visit to friend Beth's 

Maine Coast Surface Design Workshops.

(Click Here) 

where students, an assortment of 

accomplished quilt & paper artists from various states,

explored multi-media design techniques on paper.

That's Beth, the most prolific & free flowing, & generous 

creative fabric & paper design artist I've ever met!

I couldn't attend the full 3 days, 

but stepping in to her "Art Greenhouse" on Sunday was Color Heaven,

including seeing participants' finished work! 

Beth will probably post some of photos 

on her blog, Sew Sew Art.

Buttons, ribbons, printing inks, oil pastels, thread,

gel prints, rubber stamps, decorated papers, 

a bounty of art making materials!!!!!

I was overwhelmed, so I started by doing a sketch 

with my own materials. 

Starting in my comfort zone.

Then I made some collages, growing a little bolder.

Beth says, it's all a beginning. You can keep adding,

changing things, "Go wild! Let things happen, play!"

Some combinations...I used 

a few rubber stamps that Beth had made

& some papers she'd printed up.

Clearly, my process would have evolved

if I'd attended the full 3 days...
(couldn't due to my work schedule.)
And I would have made some books to take home!

 At one point I got overwhelmed by the visual & creative

stimulation, so I sat out on the front porch of the 

little Art House, sketching as a form of meditation,
on a sunny, breezy Maine summer day. 
It worked. 

I went back refreshed.

She's running a 2nd session on the July 21 weekend,

so if anyone is interested in coming to the

gorgeous Maine coast for 3 days to have wild art fun,

do go to her blog & sign up! 

I plan to take her Spirit Dolls workshop in October!
This is one of Beth's dolls.