I've just added several new Katahdin paintings to the "Preview" gallery, and also a selection of "Island Views". The Katahdin paintings were done as a result of my visit to Katahdin Lake Wilderness Camps last January. The weather was perfect; although the temperature stayed near zero, there was no wind and so it was possible to spend many hours on the lake, drawing, and taking many photos. A bit too cold to paint with watercolors on site! However, the excitement of being there and the memory of the incredible colors of the light on the snow-covered lake led to a frenzy of painting after I returned to the studio.
January 25, 2008. I'd given up on trying to paint as my brush was very stiff and the paint was freezing on the palette. I settled for drawing and making notes of the colors in the sky and on the mountain. Believe it or not, it did not feel cold!
The "Island Views" were done on Bear Island, in Penobscot Bay. The island is simply beautiful; meadows, forest, beaches, berry patches - everything one could ask for. And no electricity, cell phones, or plumbing. I'll be going back again for a week this September, with great hopes for more painting.
Imagine how thrilled I am to be included in the "Afterword" of a revised edition of J. Parker Huber's book "The Wildest Country: Exploring Thoreau's Maine" which has just been re-printed by the Appalachian Mountain Club. The book is based on a series of canoe trips Huber made in the mid-1970's, following Thoreau's journey from Greenville to Katahdin. We've been corresponding since he read of my Katahdin paintings in the Boston Globe story during the Katahdin Lake campaign. He asked if he may include me in his essays on artists and writers who have been influenced by Thoreau and Frederick Church. I am so honored to be in that company.
Several of my paintings of Katahdin Lake will be exhibited at the State House in Augusta, Maine through the summer of 2008, along with the other artists who participated in the Katahdin Lake Campaign.