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| Today’s painting, fail. Who cares? |
I knew today would be chaotic at Camden harbor but I like chaos—in metered doses—and I’ve painted enough good paintings this week to spend the day schmoozing on the dock. I hadn’t expected to paint through cannon fire, however. Frankly, my painting shows the distractions. Still, it’s been a tremendous blessing and privilege to paint here, and I’m profoundly grateful for it.
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| What I was looking at was often on the other side of a crowd, but what can you do? They were having a great time! |
My father loved Maine, painting, and sailing wooden boats. Several times this week when I signed my paintings I thought of how amazed and happy he would have been to see his daughter getting paid to stand on a dock in Maine, painting wooden boats. Here’s to you, Dad. Thanks for teaching me to paint and draw and sail. Funny how things come around full circle, isn’t it?
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| And sometimes I couldn’t even get to my easel. |
I’m still smiling at Harbor Master Steven J. Pixley reading Robert Service’s The Cremation of Sam McGee while we did our two-hour Quick Draw.
There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold…
By the men who moil for gold…
Takes me back, that. There just isn’t enough poetry recited in America these days.
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| Windjammer Festival chair Emily Lusher with the Build-a-Boat trophies, made of caulk tubes. Is that great, or what? |
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| The two little boys in the foreground went out with toy pistol and cutlass to protect Camden harbor from pirates. Their courage flagged slightly when the cannons started booming. |
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| And the little girl in the pink tank top kept piping “Ahoy, mate!” to the pirate as he handled the boat lines. |
(This was Day Seven of Camden Plein Air, Camden Falls Gallery’s annual paint-out and wet paint auction. From Monday, August 26 through Monday, September 2 participating artists from around New England and the mid-Atlantic region are painting picturesque Camden Harbor and the surrounding area. New work produced during this event will be displayed in the Camden Falls Gallery throughout the week, and a Wet Paint Auction will be held on Saturday, September 7 to benefit four local non-profit organizations.)
Join me in October, 2013 at Lakewatch Manor—which is selling out fast—or let me know if you’re interested in painting with me in 2014. Click here for more information on my Maine workshops!