Yes, I painted today....plein air....the scene above....
the painting study was a scraper...
Perhaps I spent a bit too much time talking to the returning lobstermen. Some leave Friendship, home to one of Maine's most active lobster fleets at 4 AM, others maybe later. One person suggested the boat that suddenly blocked my view for my painting study would leave again tomorrow at 6 AM.
The predawn of Friendship sounds like a zoo at feeding time as boats are revved up and men yell across the water to one another. Using GPS, fog and dark are no enemy.
In fact one lobsterman told me the sea and his over 500 traps and their locations are as familiar to him as his own bedroom. This man is aging and told me the traps weigh the same as when he was younger, but now they are heavier. I understand. The old toothless character told me lobstering hasn't changed much since his grandfather's day...just a few more toys of technology. He still listens to the morning radio report with one weather eye on the set of the sea and the cast of the day. Why oh why didn't I think to photograph this man?
So "year after year, he harvest the sea on his rounds, unburdened by the need to till or fertilize his ocean pastures.... Any Maine lobsterman will tell you that lobstering spoils a man for any other way of life." (from the book Night Train at Wiscasset Station, An Unforgettable Portrait of Maine and Its People)
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| Just a scraper study...value and hue too far off |
What a treat visiting your blog site. Your pictures of Maine are wonderful and then reading about your France experience with Dreama sounds incredible. Your photos definitely inspire me to add it to my bucket list.
ReplyDeleteI love the painting you did of the lavender fields. Good for you venturing out into the crazy plein air conditions. Something I definitely need to do more of.
Thank you for visiting my blog and your kind comments.
Good luck with the painting an all!
Hi Carol:
DeleteI am still exploring and doing little painting outside of little drawings, pen and ink or watercolor. Maine is so interesting and so many sites to see. Thank goodness, I have two weeks here as next week I promise myself my easel and umbrella will be OUT and used.
I'm glad you photographed your "scraper" before you scraped it. It is just nice to have a record of it--and were you not a daily painter that is the sort of thing a person could let dry to scumble over later. But I understand..we like to paint what we see when we see it. A great experience, even though you abandoned it. What a beautiful place! I will stay tuned for more!
ReplyDeleteIt is hard to edit out information painting plein air of a lobster marina. Other than learning to understand the light of Maine, the above has been a big problem. Yesterday I went to Mount Battie for the wide view overlook. It was stunning but, for me, not paintable. So next I focused my camera on the wild blueberries growing on the ground, a scene narrowed down and paintable.
DeleteWe were very impressed by the whole Lobstering life there in Maine and how there are fines if you pull someone else's traps. Such a different life there. I love the scene you painted.
ReplyDeleteLobster wars....I spoke with a lobsterman in Port Claude a few days ago and he told me the situation has gotten so much better. The men hate government regulation on other aspects of their fishing (other than territory on the waters) but say it has helped them a lot.
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