Showing posts with label Cushing Maine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cushing Maine. Show all posts

Monday, September 22, 2014

MAPLE JUICE COVE, MAINE

MAPLE JUICE COVE, MAINE

I think about my July/August trip to Maine a lot as it was a lifetime event.  I want to go back and often think about buying a little cottage in the mid-coast region.  If only.

I found it difficult to paint en plein air there because the colors seemed flat, the light key very high and the water vistas vast.  Can you see what I mean by comparing and contrasting the photographs below with my completed painting?

It took many days of plein air paintings and corrected paintings to see how important it was to zero in on a smaller area.  Paintings can't capture the vastness the eyes see.  But translating the view to a painting takes practice.  It is so important to sketch before painting.

On my last day on the mainland of Maine  I wandered looking for a coastal painting opportunity.  Way too often what I wanted to paint was on private property so it occurred to me to look for vacant "For Sale" waterfront property.  When I drove to this beautiful For Sale site, a handsome man was working in the yard giving me an opportunity to ask for permission.  He assured me it was ok to paint there.  

Maple Juice Cove, Maine by Carol Hopper
9x12, unframed, oil on gessobord
Click here to purchase




 The gorgeous house on Maple Juice Cove is still for sale and you might like to buy it at www.maplejuicecove.com.   The owner told me even more than I had previously learned about the Olson House which is located directly across the water to the left, out of my photograph.  If you are a lover of history and famous paintings and painters you might like to visit the Olson house website.

Edward Hopper is a very famous painter too, who painted this area.  I have thought about telling you how he is a relative of mine...through marriage.  Would you be interested in hearing that story?

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Cove's Edge, Maine


COVE'S EDGE, MAINE

COVE'S EDGE, MAINE
8x8, unframed oil on gessobord
plein air painting
Click here to purchase

For two glorious weeks I rented a cottage in Cushing, Maine.
This was my view from the lawn of the cottage
I found it glorious and painted on the property several times.
Floating in the water is Rockweed
which
at low tide
 one can clearly see is attached to the rocks.

Cushing Peninsula is the peninsula on which the Olson House is located
that very site of Andrew Wyeth's most famous painting
CHRISTINA'S WORLD

Across this cove from my cottage and this painting
is the home of Andrew Wyeth...one of his homes

  Andrew died in 2009
and is buried in the Olson family cemetery.
Why did he choose this spot?
No one knows for sure but we can say for sure
he loved and painted the Olson House
and its occupants
 for many many summers.
Andrew's gravestone
exactly as he years previously had pictured it
as Christina's stone!!!!


Christina and her brother Alvaro Olson's gravestone.
The two siblings died within mere weeks of one another
in different years

The Olson House
Cushing, Maine