More Paintings from Acadia National Park

I still have more sketches from Maine to scan-- it takes a while to scan even a fairly small selection of sketches from three sketch books, and the past couple of weeks I've happily been spending time painting rather than sitting in front of a screen. But, it's dark now and I'm a bit tired from hiking in the Catskills today, so I figured I'd sit in front of my computer for a little while. Of course by now I have some local paintings I've done, so I have still more to scan and post. I'll get to those sometime after I've posted my Maine paintings and sketches. For now, here are a number of the watercolors I did in Maine, along with a couple I've finished up at home.

I struggled a bit with my painting while I was away. For me, sketching is usually very relaxing and calming, whereas attempting to do a finished watercolor painting can sometimes be a bit stressful. It depends; sometimes it flows and I feel completely caught up in painting and time passes without my awareness. Other times, though, the wind chills me and dries my paints too fast, my fingers get stiff and don't do anything I want them to do with my brush, the light changes so fast I can't keep up with it, and I get frustrated.

When I was first at Acadia, I had a couple of easy painting days, then a few days when it felt as though my brushes were bewitched and wouldn't do anything they were supposed to do. I felt discouraged and had to take a step back, to spend some time hiking, sketching and praying to recenter myself. When I had started getting frustrated, I had begun comparing myself negatively to other artists, so I had to remind myself to paint in a way that is true to who I am and not feel that I need to paint like other artists.

Schoodic Point at sunset

After a day of reflection, I returned to my painting with more focus and a more relaxed confidence that allowed me to immerse myself in what I was doing and paint from my heart and out of my connection with whatever aspect of creation I was observing at the moment. This was one of the biggest lessons I came away with from my time as artist-in-residence. The concentrated time immersed in art with no other distractions brought the issue unavoidably to my attention and pretty much forced me to deal with it, which then set me free to move forward. Again, I am so thankful to the Schoodic Institute and the park service for the opportunity to develop as an artist through my time there.

Arey Cove

Little Moose Island

Before sunset at Schoodic Point

Schoodic Point sunset glow

Schoodic Point Sunset

Eider Duck (male)

Storm Clouds coming in on Schoodic Peninsula

Otters!

Little Moose Island

Schoodic Point low tide rocks

The next two paintings are ones I did from my car at Schoodic Point during a tremendous storm. The waves were HUGE and the spray was rising up higher than the parking lot, which is quite a bit above the water.

Schoodic Point storm

Schoodic Point storm