#161 The Gulch

The intervale on the lower part of our property is one long field stretching north to south along the Carrabassett River.  It's broken up by a garden or two, a small orchard and a gulch that we think houses all form of beast, behemouth, demon, devil, dragon, freak, giant, leviathon, hellion, mammoth, miscreation, mutant, ogre, savage, werewolf and vampire not to mention those yet to be discovered and named.

It also serves as a frog and duck pond in the spring when the annual flood arrives, a pump track for Harry and Cam, and mosquito nursery during the summer, an organic catch-all for anything you got going on during fall cleanup, and a safety spin-out for sledding runaways during the winter.

I keep thinking it would make a great cemented pond for swimming, with a pretty little bridge to serve as a shortcut to the river during the summer. It could double as an hockey pond with lights in the winter.

But as I stated above, we're sure there's a yet to be discover species waiting for the last bit of glacier below us to recede. We'll leave it alone, watch and wait. You never know what'll appear these days.

The Gulch • 8" x 8" gouache framed to 12" x 12" • $200

#160 An Island Place

It's Earth Day. I didn't have an opportunity to do a special painting this year, so I'm posting a sketch I did last summer. It's an island place we passed one afternoon while on our little sailboat "Claudia." When I see scenes like this, I document them - they will probably disappear into the water like so many islands and their peoples around the world are now.

I've gotten over the anger and frustration around the lack of control over those who don't understand the value of places like this, not to mention the fact that they represent real people, their homes and their livelihoods. I simply feel sad for them because in the end, all of us will suffer equally - it won't matter how much power and money you have. The playing field will have finally been leveled.

An Island Place • 8" x 8" gouache framed to 12" x 12"• $200

#159 More Like It

Okay, this has been a decent week here in Maine - the weather is acting more like spring. All we need is a sprinkling of sails out there.

Keep your fingers crossed for more like it.

More Like It • 8" x 8" gouache framed to 12" x 12" • $200