Another Fabulous Souvenir

Finding our way back from Lobster Cove to our cottage on Monhegan on one of our hikes, my dad and I met a woman walking uphill towards us toting groceries in a backpack and a gallon of water in each hand. The gallons were doing her in, and it was as she set them to rest on the packed-dirt lane that she struck up a conversation. A conversation that included her stating that she was an artist, she was living at Alison Hill's gallery up the road, turn right at the fork, did we know where it was?, stop by!

That afternoon I did stop by! I took myself up that road, turned right at the fork, found the gallery, found Judy, hung out with her, and talked art and life for a good forty-five minutes, laughing, exchanging ideas, asking questions, exclaiming, both of us barefoot in the hot August sunshine, walking back and forth on top of several works in progress she had taped to tarps on the huge deck at Alison's place.

Judy, thank you: meeting you = a fabulous souvenir! I'm bookmarking our afternoon together.

Barefoot at Breeze Studio
1.5x5.5"; acrylic, India ink, oil pastel, and collage on watercolor paper
abstract bookmark
2018
[gift]

The Pull of the Brush

I didn't go to Monhegan with preconceived notions of what I would paint. I suspected I'd stay with what I'll loosely call abstract expressionism but I was open to the possibility that I might want to paint representationally. The only thing I knew for sure was that I'd paint with watercolors.

Once on the island, though, I was surprised by how strongly I felt the following: I didn't feel called at all to paint recognizable scenes. I didn't want to paint Monhegan, I wanted to be at Monhegan and paint.

Early Morning Undulations of Trail and Cove
4.5x6"; watercolor and ink on watercolor paper
abstract
2018

Ironically, I arrived home to find in the mail the delightful gift of a representational, entirely recognizable scene of some Camp Takodah buildings, painted evocatively and to great effect, with watercolors, by my camp friend Jane!

Casual Elegant

On Monhegan, my dad and I made our own breakfasts, snacks, and lunches and ate them at our apartment at Tribler Cottage, but for dinner we walked the lane to the dining room at the Island Inn. In short order we learned how to snag the reservation that would give us the best chance at a window table overlooking the inn porch, the harbor, and Monhegan's little offshoot, Manana Island.

Dinner was an exquisite experience of 'casual elegant' each evening—with guests just a tiny bit dressed up, dark green bottles of artisan balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil perched on each table, an exhibit of Joan Harlow's oil paintings gracing the walls, windows open to the refreshment of sea breezes, and edible flowers bedecking each entrée.

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A few edible flowers jumped ship to one of my watercolors.

The Air Smelled of Honeysuckle and Hay
7x9"; watercolor, ink, and water-soluble crayon on canvas paper
abstract floral
2018

Monhegan Madeleines

Each time I've taken a vacation since I began painting four years ago I've debated with myself: Shall I paint? Or leave my paints behind?

Decades ago I had an aha moment while on vacation at Takodah, realizing with sudden clarity that a vacation means to vacate—to leave, to depart from, to move away from—everything! All the things I'm happy to quit and all the things I love fiercely. So it is that I always try on the idea of leaving my paints at home.

But I never regret packing them, because each piece of art I create and bring back home—whether a sweet success or frazzled frustration—is a fully embodied memento.

For me to pick up one of those paintings is to return to the lived physical experience of creating it in my vacation setting—to the soft worn wooden cottage floor under my bare feet, to the bell buoy clanging north of the island, to the tang of late summer blueberries in my mouth, to the dry smell of late-August dust coming in the window from the lane, to the surprise of blue when I thought I'd loaded my brush with deep purple.

I can feel the brush in my hand, feel the granite gem of island that stands under me, feel the salt water that washes the island's every edge.

Sand and Shallows, Salt and Sawgrass 5x5"; watercolor and collage on canvas paper abstract 2018

Parameters

Ferry.

Maine.

Monhegan.

Island.

Sky.

Trees.

Water.

Color.

Watercolor.

Watercolor paints?

That's what I brought on vacation with me when my dad and I plunked ourselves ten miles out to sea on a one-square-mile island for four days—watercolor paints, water-soluble crayons, and a few marking tools.

In the same way that if I were going to get anywhere while on Monhegan it would have to be by foot, if I were going to paint it would have to be with watercolors.

Alrighty then.

One experiment became this card, to which I added only four teeny bits of collage once I returned home.

Ridiculously
3x4"; watercolor, water-soluble crayon, ink, and collage on watercolor paper
abstract
2018
[gift]