Smoking Smokebush!

This is my smoking smokebush.  It is particularly beautiful this year.  It is a bone of contention with my parents as their smokebush next door froze over the winter so that we had to cut most of it down this year, but mine seem to thrive!  In the morning with the dew and the sunshine it seems to be truly smoking.

Lots of great colors in one bush!

5 Kaleidoscopes, One Picture, and One Shape

This week I finally finished the landscaping, gallery setup and furnishing of our new venture:  http://artistsretreatmaine.com/ so was able to do a little creative work.  This blog post is scheduled to post at the time we are opening our new gallery for the first time!  Michael began teaching again this week until the end of summer so our slightly relaxed schedule is about to fill up again.  Michael will be going to Castine for a plein air festival immediately after finishing teaching this Friday:  http://www.castinearts.org/2013-castine-plein-air-festival/.  Come and buy one of his paintings if you are in the area.  He was a featured artist in the September issue of the http://www.artistsnetwork.com/the-artists-magazine which is just being mailed out now!  It has a circulation of 60,000 so hopefully he will get lots of new attention!

I decided to do five kaleidoscopes this week based on one photo Michael took when he did a retreat on Pemaquid Point, Maine earlier this summer.  I used the same kaleidoscope shape for each one.  The original photo is first, then the five variations.  The variations are endless even with one photo and one shape!  I have decided that the best kaleidoscopes are created from fairly monochromatic images!  If you take a photo with too many colors, the resulting kaleidoscope can be "too busy" drawing the eye in too many directions.

A Vacation Day on the Blue Ferry...Blue, Blue and More Blue!

My siblings and my nieces and nephews were visiting my parents this week and we got a chance to take a ferry boat ride to Eastport.  Mondays is our free day from our other obligations but unfortunately nearly all the galleries and the museum in Eastport were closed.  We still had a nice ferry ride and lunch.  We still plan to open our new Gallery in Lubec on July 24th.  http://artistsretreatmaine.com/   I will be bringing my work into the Gallery in the next few days.

Campobello Island Ferry 2 views

Land and Sea

3 Masted Schooners and a Historic Lighthouse at head Harbour

The pictures speak for themselves this week.  We are working hard to get our other Gallery ready for the Grand Opening in about 10 days!  http://artistsretreatstudiosandgallery.blogspot.com

Boats and More Boats!

I took a break from the renovation of  http://artistsretreatstudiosandgallery.blogspot.com which is winding down and preparing for the http://pleinairfundy.org/ evening event to take my friend Brian out to see Head Harbour Lighthouse (East Quoddy) and the working wharf at Head Harbour.  We took lots of photographs and I will be featuring them in my kaleidoscopes for several weeks!

boat in the "trees"

turquoise boat with water reflections

red and white boats

2 blue boats

Lobster traps being stored on floating platforms in Head Harbour

The boat colors and the water reflections were amazing.