Georgetown and Tenants Harbor, Maine

Here are a few working sketches that I completed while picking up some of my paintings from the Plein Air Painters of Maine show at the Georgetown Library.  It is such a beautiful area.

The sketchpad I use is a simple 11" by 14" Acid Free medium weight paper. This first page represents some quick sketches I made sitting on a granite bench right alongside an inlet.  I generally make a few quick compositional sketches of scenes I am considering as well as local sights that could turn into additional paintings or elements that I might add into the composition later.  In other words real local buildings or natural scenes that you wouldn't see from this point of view but that anyone familiar with the area would be recognized.

This was a grey day and quite windy, but enjoyable.  Two ducks kept me company the entire time I sketched.  One black, one white.  Both very busy fishing.  I'm going to change the mostly hidden modern car port for a lobster shack that I remember (or imagine I remember) from Higgins Beach.

I plan to adjust the patterns of the lobster traps in the final painting as I've begun at the bottom of the page.

The sketch below is of a working wharf in Georgetown.  I happened to stop by as the days catch was being brought up to the wharf and then loaded onto the waiting truck.  I'm going to move the boat unloading to the near side of the wharf in the final picture.

To the right in the margin is a sketch of some fascinating reflections in a small building next to me on the location of the sketch above.  I could see reflections as well as into the building and out the other side.  It reminded me of something that Andrew Wyeth might paint ( no pressure there :)  

I recently purchased the book Wyeth and Kuhners.  It was filled with many of working sketches leading up to the final paintings.   It was very interesting to "see" his thought process behind some of his finished paintings.  The older I get and the longer I paint, the more my appreciation of his work grows.

Old Mill Stream

This large watercolor is based on a nearby mill brook in Lisbon Falls, Maine.  The wollen mill was torn down within the past decade.  I'd always said I'd paint it, but I waited too long.

The rock wall in the foreground is part of the old canal system and actually is not visible from this view.  The two rock walls in the mid ground are part of the canal/power system for the old mill.  On this day the water was low but running rapidly over a breach in the dam.

This is one of the few spring paintings I've done.  There are so many colors in the spring as the trees begin to flower.  Not quite fall like, but colorful none the less.  I've simplified the overall composition while trying to stay true to the acutal location.

This location is actually quite a gem.  There is a walking path on the left with a view of the brook which continues along the Androscoggin River.

What happens in your studio at night?

Have you ever wondered what happens in your studio when you turn in for the night?  I went downstairs and Echo (one of our cats) came sprinting out of my studio looking very guilty...

I went to my drawing table and there it was - an abstract sketch that I didn't paint:  It isn't signed, but there is some incriminating cat hair on it.

What had spooked the cat?    

Was it the horses?   The B 29's?

Or the moose?

Echo came back to the studio and curled up in my lap - keeping one eye on the moose.

Will the Man and Moose ever meet?

I can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring!