Farnsworth. Bell Ringers And A Crankie

Festive Holiday doings during the Farnsworth Art Museum's

seasonal Share the Wonder events.

First, a concert by the Penobscot Ringers,a handbell ensemble. 

It was music of the angels & had

a number of us in the audience crying for the beauty of it all!

Such beauty in the midst of some real ugliness in the world.

 After the concert, a lecture by Annie Bailey,

creator of a rotating storytelling mural for the Museum's 

front window. It tells about Maine heroine,

Abbie Burgess, a 16 year old who tended 

The Matinicus Rock Light & took care of her family

during a raging storm in 1856.

Her father, the lighthouse keeper, had gone to the mainland

for supplies, but could not get back for 4 weeks!

Bailey said she chose Abbie as a symbol

of focus of in a time of chaos.  

Something that is needed in these times too.     

(This photo of 1 scene doesn't show the mural's true size

& the window picked up reflections. But...)

The scroll's height is 4 ft. & one full rotation is 60 ft. 

The scroll, called a "Crankie", moves between 2 spools 

by way of a bicycle chain mechanism created by Andrew White. 

Bailey collaborated with a number of people 

to make this project work, & she has studied the Crankies 

of the 19th century.

There was, as with all original projects, 

trial & failure before final successes.

(I'm hoping the mural will stay up beyond its Jan. close date.) 

Recent Sketchbook Wandering

At LL Bean recently I had left my sketchbook in the car. Horrors! "Oh please, I asked the young woman in the café, do you have any scrap paper, I am desperate!" Yes, she did, so I was able to sketch out the window 

on that chilly morning while waiting for my breakfast. 

On a trip to Boston, I sat on a bench at the edge of the Commons, at Park St. to sketch. 

After years of Boston trips, 

I never before noticed a large fountain! 

A fast scribble sketch, just making notes, watching, listening.

Sitting there in the park, a great theater experience, 

with diverse characters & conversations!

 A mellow November day in peaceful Harvard Yard. 

Lots of chairs out, so I hung out after going to the Fogg Art Museum. 

(loved the museum, not as grand as The Museum of Fine Arts, but wonderful.)

People waiting for subways, and buses...

...are always favorite city subjects.

 Sketches at the Portland Museum of Art...They & the Fogg don't allow ink pens, 

so a lot of the sketches in this series are too light to post. 

 The last 2 are from the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland.

 ...which does allow ink pens. 

The Farnsworth: one of my favorite art museums!

The Lady in Waiting

From the window of Atlantic Bakery: Elderly woman, waiting, on a Rockland sidewalk. 

She had navy blue painted fingernails, a huge cameo sort of ring, & silver dangle earrings. 

As she waited she talked & gestured to no one in particular, & kept glancing down the street. 

Eventually, her son (with whom I chatted in the Bakery) came & helped her into a large van. 

She was gone, her image remained.

I was reading that materials often dictate our results. I recently started a new 3.5 X 5.5 Moleskine, 

the one with the smooth cream colored pages, for my carry-everywhere sketchbook. 

With it I use both a super fine Slicci & a heavier point Staples.

And colored pencils. 

Coincidentally, I found this pouch in Rockland.

It is by "Patz, Made in Maine". Perfect! 

In some ways colored pencils are easier for me than watercolors. 

I can use more force than the delicacy that watercolors ask of me, and layer and lift more. 

Crayolas & Prismacolors, they are like a first language to me. 

While some children today have their own studios where they freely make art with lots of materials, 

I grew up on coloring books & Crayolas, on the bedroom floor.