Category Archives: creativity

All hands on deck

Among the people here with me, there’s a great well of other talents besides painting. That includes two fitness buffs whose idea of a good time is to climb up a rocky precipice, then follow that up with a brief swim across Frenchman’s Bay so they can bicycle back from Bar Harbor to Schoodic. They […]

Beautiful scenery and a lobster dinner… yum!

As most Mainers will happily tell you, the weather forecast frequently isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on (especially since we all get it on our phones now). The Maine coast is a maze of tiny inlets and peninsulas, which means a million microclimates strung together in a highly-complex blanket. The weather appears to be […]

The Huckleberry Finn problem

Among Rochester, NY’s cultural treasures is the 110-year-old Dentzel carousel, nicknamed, ‘the Duchess’. Generations of Rochester children (including mine) have been enraptured by its three rings of 33 horses, three rabbits, three cats, three ostriches, three pigs, two mules, and a lion, tiger, goat, giraffe and deer. Most carousels, sadly, have been cut up and […]

In Praise of Galleries

This weekend I picked up some paintings I had on display for a local event. Joking, I said to the manager, “I thought you were planning on selling all of these for me!” “Art sells itself,” he answered. That is patently untrue and why, in a nutshell, artists need galleries. A good gallerist is knowledgeable […]

It’s time for PERC’s annual buoy auction

This is the sixth year for Penobscot East Research Center’s (PERC) annual buoy auction, which grossed nearly $25,000 and included 62 buoys last year. The auction is PERC’s largest fundraiser. “When I started this event five years ago, I never dreamed we would still be doing this fundraiser,” said Administrative Director Bobbi Billings. “Yet, here we […]

Weekend art in mid-coast Maine

My family had a 50-acre farm in Niagara County, New York. I’m intimately familiar with the work cycle of a small northeastern farm. So when my lodger, who works at Aldermere Farm, tells me, “We put up a thousand square bales today,” I want to just chuck this plein air gig and go work there […]

I learn how Mainers cook scallops

The last day of a plein air festival always ends in a kerfuffle. “There’s always drama in framing,” said Ted Lameyer of Castine, who went on to tell me how he didn’t have the right mats and had to swap some from other framed paintings. For me, the drama was simpler: a cracked frame. But […]

Traveling light

In less than four weeks, I embark on an odd and interesting trip. Four of us are delivering a small SUV to Anchorage, Alaska. Because it will contain most of my daughter’s worldly goods, I intend to keep my luggage down to a carry-on bag, my laptop, my camera, and, of course, a small watercolor […]

A painting group gets started

One of the hardest things about relocating to Maine was leaving my painting students back in Rochester. We have formed deep friendships, and I want them to continue painting. That has, actually, happened. They regularly send me photos of their work to critique. This makes me feel as if I’m still somehow connected to their […]

Not a Hudson River School Painter

Two people at this event have commented that I paint like a Group of Seven painter. I’ve been perplexed along with being utterly delighted. Very few non-painters in the US have any idea who these brilliant Canadian painters were. I adore them, not only for their mastery of paint handling and composition, but because their inspiration […]