My first stop was at the driveway entrance to the former home and studio of Stephen Etnier.
The land is no longer in family hands , the house and studio are long gone (which is another story all together). However, the area surrounding the grounds of the studio is striking. Farmland, spruce forests, wild ponds, and working houses of lobster and fishermen with boats large and small, for working and for pleasure. The road was serpentine and very narrow. That, and the fact that I was an uninvited guest, I didn't stay long.
Here is a photograph of "Old Cove" house and studio from the dock (uncredited - StevenEtnier.com) I could understand why Steven Etnier chose this place to build his home and studio. I must admit that I imagined seeing his good friend Andrew Wyeth visiting captivated by the endless subjects to paint at every turn.
My second stop was a subtly marked parking area (a Maine tradition) alongside a cove. There was a picnic table and access to the water a short walk across the street. It was a low tide with small waves lapping against a beach of tiny rocks - nothing like the cliffs pictured above. Maine and New England are filled with these unadvertised hidden gems. They are well worth the effort to find.
From the parking lot, there was an easy hike, just over a mile, through a spruce forest to another cove with a similar pebbled beach with one large difference. It was largely covered by snails that hadn't burrowed into the sand yet. The walk reminded me of childhood days. Walking along the towpath through the pine forests along the remnants of the Cumberland and Oxford Canal near my childhood home in Westbrook.
Large pines with thick roots snaking across the ground. Evidence of the wind surrounds you murmuring through the pines. You can see the treetops swaying, the patterns of light shifting silently on the ground, the creaks and pops of pines swaying in the wind, yet the air remains very still inside thick stands of pine. There were numerous deadfalls, trees toppled by the wind, caught by their neighbors before they reached the ground. Those trees still standing had many gnarled dead branches - unable to reach the shafts of sunlight soon enough to support life - create abstract patterns on the rust colored floor, low ferns, branches and tree trunks.
This Pen and Ink is an impression of the entrance to the forest path as well as some of the interesting scenery on the way to the beach.
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