Clearly summertime is not a time for much blogging. Between visits from family and friends (wonderful!) and trying to keep up with the weeds (not wonderful) I haven’t spent nearly as much time painting and blogging as I’d thought I would. Over a month ago we made a fast trip to Maine, seeing old friends along the way. Then we stayed two nights with a couple who had rented a beautiful house in northern Maine (“Down East”). Our host was a composer who very generously critiqued a piece that Ed had written. We feasted, hiked, Ed played trios with our hosts, and–best of all–I took my easel down their front slope to the ocean and painted. I spent a lovely morning painting and finished a little sketch. It was a great spot–lobster fishermen picking up their catch within earshot. In the afternoon I returned to the same spot to do another, and made what I thought was a great start. However, being a landlubber I’d completely forgotten about high tide. After a while I noticed the water starting to rise not far from where I’d set up. I thought surely it would start to go down soon. I kept setting a point at which I’d move, then I’d move, then it would come in some more. All of a sudden it was lapping at my easel. In my haste to get everything away from the water I dropped and smeared the painting so I had to finish it up from a photo after I got home. (I don’t like to use photos but if I’ve painted some at the site it seems to work.) Anyway, it was a lot of fun while it lasted.
High Tide oil on masonite 9 x 12 $150 unframed
Andrea Doughtie, Rural Painter 