Port Clyde Refuel (Framed)

30" x 40"

Oil on Canvas

Framed in Cpontemporary Floater Frame

Limited publication time

$2900

 I took a photo in Port Clyde, Maine, where the boats go out to Monhegan Island because I loved the way the sun hit the objects that afternoon. Later, in painting it, I was mystified by the blue, red, and yellow object. I just couldn't figure out what it was and it seemed important to know. So I asked everyone who had a boat or who might know. I kept a list, because everyone had a different idea. Finally, the light. I went to the source this June when I was on my Maine painting trip, and I asked a fisherman who was working that dock. The red/yellow object is a support for the blue water hose so it doesn't get kinked with the tide changes. At last! Also, I found out that the green handled nozzle is for gas and the missing one is for diesel fuel. Now I can relax.

I am very proud of this piece, the largest one that started my new series of items from the working waterfront. I love the light and the way it blesses the everyday objects that serve the need of the sailor. This piece was chosen for a national juried exhibit at the Cape Cod Art Association. 

Ready for the Season (Framed)

36" x 36"

Oil on Deep Canvas

Framed with a Light Wood, Black Lined 

Custom made Contemporary Floater Frame

Limited Time Only

$2900

This piece will grab you and not let you go. It is quite large and uses the bright colors found on the dock. The lobster fisherman is waiting for the season to be ready; that will be when the lobsters are at the correct stage and the laws allow. In Maine, in June, there are piles of equipment on almost every dock. There are traps in every color, floats that are painted in the registered colors of each family, stacks of pallets (which is what those brown things are) The large blue container and the one on top of it are huge coolers and they are full of mackeral for bait. I watched one day as container after container dumped the mackeral into a special holding tank. In this piece, through the pallets on the right you can see through to additional traps and a snatch of the sea.

Through all this identification of stuff, what I really like is how the colors and shapes play against each other, forming an almost abstract composition.

Shack Window, Friendship, ME (Framed)

8x10

Oil on Panel

still wet

Framed with contemporary float frame, light wood

Limited time only

sold

You walk down the rickety pier covered with traps and surrounded by boats and rough beauty. In the window you stop, taken by the wonderful collage of bits and pieces of the fisherman's world: peeling paint, a buoy unique to the family; weathered wood, used, useful, and trashy stuff; you can feel cold water, salt air, hope of a good catch, memories, despair, swelling seas, and hard work. Suddenly this is more beautiful than the sky and sea.

"Checking the Traps" (Framed)

18x24

Oil on Canvas

Framed with light wood contemporary floater frame

sold

When I visited `Maine, I was taken by the working waterfront and it has become my primary subject matter now. The piece shows a couple of lobstermen checking their traps behind a field of buttercups in Friendship, Maine. Recently, I heard that the lobster boats built in Friendship are considered the best.