Island explorer

"Stonington Public Dock," 10X8, Carol L. Douglas

“Stonington Public Dock,” 10X8, Carol L. Douglas

Last Tuesday dawned dim and grey, weather that might have found me back in the studio if I were in Rockport. Instead I was sailing into Stonington harbor. This is a place I visit regularly by car, but the long approach by water looked very different, with its long granite scarps and abandoned quarry.

Wooden lobster boat off Stonington.

Wooden lobster boat off Stonington.

There are certain parts of the Maine coast I cannot visit without seeing the Manhattan skyline overlaid on the scenery. Much of New York’s pink and grey granite came from here. For example, the blocks for the Brooklyn Bridge were quarried on Vinalhaven and delivered to the city by schooner. The Maine coast was quarried for two centuries to build America.

Drilled and abandoned before cleaving in an old quarry site.

Drilled and abandoned before cleaving in an old quarry site.

Most of Deer Isle and the surrounding islands are sitting on what is called the Deer Isle pluton (which is just the technical term for a big lump of intrusive igneous rock). In this area, the rock shelves cleave naturally into long steps that descend to the water’s edge, unless they have been replaced by tumbles of quarried stone.

The American Eagle off Russ Island.

The American Eagle off Russ Island.

Stonington is a fairly large town, with many buildings stepping down to the harbor. That was too much drafting for the time it took my fellow passengers to take their shore leave and Captain John Foss to row over to the lobster coop to collect dinner. I decided to paint the public dock, the area I know best because of Penobscot East Resource Center’s annual buoy fundraiser.

Strawberries blooming on a weathered granite block.

Strawberries blooming on a weathered granite block.

After passengers and lobsters were safely stowed, we moved to Russ Island for a picnic. This 40-acre island is owned and managed by Chewonki. Although there is a trail over the top, my new friend Lisa and I couldn’t find it; instead, we scrambled over the shoreline to the Stonington side, where we were finally defeated by a rock face jutting up out of the water. No choice then, but to go overland, which brought us past the disused quarry and back to the trail we couldn’t see from the bottom.

Justin Schaefer and Chris Pederson serving lobsters on the beach.

Justin Schaefer and Chris Pederson serving lobsters on the beach.

After a lobster festival on the beach we returned to the American Eagle. A lovely sunset was forming to the west. I painted it while Sarah O’Connor hand-sewed the binding to an eighteenth-century corset and cook Matthew Weeks knitted.

"Russ Island sunset," 8X6, Carol L. Douglas

“Russ Island sunset,” 8X6, Carol L. Douglas

Knitting and sailing have an ancient relationship. It is thought that knitting derived from net-making somewhere in the dim recesses of time. Once wool came into common use for knitting, fishermen and sailors took to it. Not only was knitting portable, its end result was warm, weatherproof and especially useful to those who made their living on the sea.

(The American Eagle, the Isaac H. Evans and other Rockland and Camden schooners are featured in Below the Waterline: Seven Weeks in the Shipyard, at Camden Falls Gallery this month.)

Carol Douglas

About Carol Douglas

Carol L. Douglas is a painter who lives, works and teaches in Rockport, ME. Her annual workshop will again be held on the Schoodic Peninsula in beautiful Acadia National Park, from August 6-11, 2017. Visit www.watch-me-paint.com/ for more information.