Grateful End of Year Thoughts 2019

As I begin my seventh decade of life, I reflect more on the positive things happening in my life right now. Michael and I have all our parents still alive and living independently and with only some of the indignities of extreme age.  We look forward to some more travel in the years ahead as we begin our retirement or refocussing as Michael has termed it.  We hope to buy an old van to do more western travels and for Michael to use as a paintmobile or mobile outdoor studio this year.  In the meantime we enjoy our twice annual Sedona plein air painting workshops, Lubec area plein are painting workshops and other special workshops and events which involve travel around the US and the larger world!

 We are very settled in our Ramah, New Mexico home and look forward to more summers on Campobello Island, New Brunswick with my parents where I continue to learn about organic gardening from my farm raised father. 

The only sadness this year was learning our young rescue dog Raku has a lifelong eye condition which might lead to blindness.  In the meantime we administer eye drops twice per day for her pannus and hope to keep blindness at bay for many years. 

Happy Holidays and have a great 2020 to all who reads this blog.

Last Day Of Summer, Autumnal Equinox and Spectacular Spider Webs and next summer's vacation planning!

Maybe soon I will be able to close my windows and seal in for winter.  It has been really nice this late summer season with just a hint of the coming season.  As usual, this is the season for mushrooms and spider webs and the hint of Fall color.  However, in this area, the leaves are not that spectacular as compared with other New England areas I have lived in partly because of all the evergreen like spruces, but also the few maples do not blaze with color.   The most colorful thing is the berries on the ash trees!

I believe it is because the night time temperatures are moderated by the ocean breezes so the leaves do not have to go out in short blaze of color, but have an extended dying off period.  The first frost happens usually in October on Campobello Island which is really late for the 45th parallel!  Our garden is just beginning to bear some green beans!

I will post a few spiderweb kaleidoscopes for my last one of my summer season here in Lubec, Maine and Campobello Island, NB.  There is an international border between the towns here, but it feels like one town as the services and amenities complement each other and we own property in both!  I make my escape to another country nearly every day!

It is not too early to begin thinking about summer 2017!  We are taking reservations for our artists retreat vacation rental in Lubec, Maine for summer 2017 now.

Water views, walk to beach and waterfront restaurants.  Make your own artistic retreat, musical or painting,  or join us in a plein air workshop.  $500 for 5 nights, contact me!  Great for SummerKeys students.

Lubec, Maine

Lubec, Maine had a nice feature today in the Working Waterfront:  http://www.islandinstitute.org/working-waterfront/away-influx-helps-pump-lubec.  Yesterday I happened to take lots of pictures of the boats on the waterfront area so I was inspired to do some kaleidoscopes today since the weather has changed to rain.

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!

Fireweed Fluff and Albert Handell

We were so honored to have Albert Handell at our home on Campobello Island, NB for a roasted organic vegetable dinner harvested from our garden last night.  Albert is known worldwide for pastel and oil painting and among other honors he was elected by the The Pastel Society of America into the Pastel Hall of Fame, making him one of three living artists so honored at the time he was selected.  Here is a wonderful video interview recently conducted with him: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GlRCJa_S_0  We are facilitating a workshop for him in Lubec, Maine.  We got a very respectable number of students for a tiny town:  15!

In the meantime, I created a few kaleidoscopes from a photo of yesterday's seasonal plant change:  our fireweed went to fluff!

Geometry of Nature Show: 2 Visions in Lubec Maine

This week Michael Chesley Johnson and I are hanging a show which runs until September 3rd at the Mulholland Market Gallery in Lubec, Maine.  I took some photos of my fabric pieces which will be in the show, but am not satisfied with the photographs.  However, for those of you who cannot attend in person, you can vicariously see poor reproductions of the originals which I photographed on my kitchen floor!  I also have a selection of metal prints and photographs on paper, but the images below are made entirely of fabric.

Michael is including 21 paintings, mostly ones done this season, including a first showing of his natural divider diptychs.

Flowers, Rocks and the Geometry of Nature

Campobello Island is well known for it's beautiful beach "cobbles".  I have a garden at Friar's Bay Studio Gallery where I use cobbles as "Campobello mulch".    Today is another busy day of renovation at the Artists Retreat Studios & Gallery, so here are three quick kaleidoscopes I created with seasonal flowers in my garden.

The Artists Retreat Studios and Gallery Doors and Front Stoop

I am working very hard to prepare our new Gallery for opening around July 1st.  http://artistsretreatstudiosandgallery.blogspot.ca/  I decided this week to go back to architectural photos since I have been using nature photos for quite some time. The front doors are painted "Sedona at Sunset" which I think is a bit more pumpkin colored than the colors of red rock , but they made a nice focal point for my photos and hopefully for our Gallery.

The front doors

The front doors variation 2

The front doors variation 3

Artists Retreat Studios & Gallery Front Stoop

You can really have fun with just one photograph.  There are endless variations that can be created with various shapes or slices of the photograph.

Fiddlehead Ferns and Forsythia

Fiddlehead ferns and forsythia are the current showy plants of the week here off the coast of Maine.

Fiddlehead Ferns--one variety, but there are many others

Forsythia Hedge Adds Color to the landscape

Brian Bieberle and  and I are working hard on the http://artistretreatstudiosandgallery.blogspot.ca/2013/03/1-bedroom-apartment-available-july-1st.html.  I believe I have a tenant for this part of the home, but am now looking for someone to rent the main part of the house beginning in July.  It will be sparsely furnished, but you would have ocean views and several bedrooms to choose for studio space!  Walk to http://summerkeys.com/ activities, bank, restaurants, grocery, beach, docks, and shops.  You could actually just leave your car in the driveway and take the walk on ferry to Eastport or get a tour of Campobello Island with these tour operators:  http://islanddiscoverytours.com/.  Also, Michael Chesley Johnson has space left in his http://www.paintcampobello.com/ plein air painting workshops held during July and August.  Come to Lubec, Maine and Campobello Island, NB this summer and your life will be transformed by the experience!