Farewell to Summer in Nova Scotia

We had the opportunity last week to participate in a painting retreat.  Michael painted 7 paintings and I did a lot of hiking and photography.  We rented a former student's home called the http://artistshousenovascotia.com/.  The house was wonderful for the 4 of us and Saba loved the deer, squirrels and the 60 acres of land with trails down to the waterfront!  It was very relaxing, plus we saw lots of new scenery which is always refreshing.

We spent most of our time around Annapolis Royal where we visited the historic gardens and a variety of wonderful museums and learned a great deal about the Acadian expulsion, tidal power, and the history of Nova Scotia.  We were able to visit Hopewell Rocks in New Brunswick at low tide which was a real treat.  On our way home we visited Burncoat Head during fairly low tide and then made our way via Five Islands and it's large sea cliffs where we had a picnic lunch and then to Joggins Fossil Cliffs before we returned to New Brunswick and stayed in Port Elgin for the evening at the Pumpkin Inn B & B where there was a very nice walking trail.

The next day did not go as well since we had specifically planned to take the Deer Island - Campobello Island Ferry, but they decided not to run that day due to wind.  It was almost catastrophic as we almost ran out of gas since we took the ferry to Deer Island, drove to the bottom of the island to find a small hand scrolled sign saying sorry not running today, then had to drive back to the top of the island, take the ferry back to the mainland and drive back to St. George.  We knew we were only 2 miles away from gas in Lubec, Maine from the Campobello Island ferry landing but were not planning the long drive around and waste of several hours on a rainy day.  A properly placed sign at the Deer Island ferry dock could have saved us 2 plus hours, 2 ferry rides, 2 additional border crossings, and a lot of aggravation.  It was an unkind, lazy act by the private ferry operator.  We were not the only ones, many others had the same experience that day....

Since we arrived back on Campobello Island, the calendar has definitely turned to Fall.  It has been cool, leaves are changing, and the days are noticeably shorter.  Our thoughts are turning to our winter season and our plein air painting workshops in Sedona, AZ.

Below are a few kaleidoscopes created from images taken during our week away:

Boat in Haulup

Historic Gardens Pergola

Joggins Fossil Rock

Lighthouse Detail

Michael and Saba at Burrncoat Head, NS

A Summer's Sojourn

Labor day came and went and for us that means we can finally take our summer's vacation.  Our studio gallery no longer has regular hours and Michael did not have any students last week for the first time in many weeks.  So what does a plein air painter and photographer do with a few days off?  They go exploring and checking out the competition....  We had not been back to the Blue Hill Peninsula in almost 20 years even though we go annually to Acadia National Park.  So we headed for the picturesque town of Stonington checking out the Galleries of Blue Hill en route.  We only had 2 free nights as we had to get back for our studio tour on Saturday, but we made the most of our time.  We met some wonderful artists and saw some really nice galleries: http://judhartmanngallery.com/, http://turtlegallery.com/, http://bluehillbaygallery.com/ , http://www.siribeckman.com/ ,  http://www.chrisleithstudio.com/ and http://caterpillarhillinitiative.org/art/.

The following kaleidoscopes were created from 4 of the 298 photos I took during the 3 days.  Michael said he has years worth of studio paintings from the photos he took of boats.

Seaweed in the Water

Stone Walls with Lichen

Stonington Harbor Reflections

Sunflowers without Goldfinches --there were many goldfinches on the sunflowers, but none of my pictures caught them in my lens!