The time had come to take another road trip. There hadn’t been the need to wait for a nice day, as this summer produced one nice day after another. All the same, I threw in my raincoat at the last minute and started off Thursday morning at 8:00 a.m.

Once again, my trip was instigated by a recommendation from my friend and artist Barbara Sullivan. She suggested I stop in to see the current group exhibition at the Chocolate Church in Bath. When driving through the city of Bath, one can’t miss the soaring, chocolate-brown tower and the distinctive, mid-nineteenth century Gothic Revival architecture. After many decades of its serving as a church, the congregation merged with another, and the property was sold in 1965. The building’s fate was uncertain and poised for demolition when members of the community stepped in to save the structure and gave the building new purpose as The Chocolate Church Arts Center.

Since 1977 it has been the home of Maine’s dynamic mid-coast regional performing and visual arts center offering a rich program of live music, gallery exhibitions, theatre for young artists, lectures, and workshops.

I thoroughly enjoyed the current exhibition “Summer Breeze” curated by artist Breehan James. Unfortunately, the show will probably be closed by the time you read this, but I encourage you to check out their website t see what is coming next. The building is also worth stopping in to see.

I picked up a delicious sandwich at “Sisters – A Gourmet Deli” just down the street from the Chocolate Church. The building is a repurposed gas station with bright trim, colorful picnic tables and flower boxes in front. This is an easy exit just before the Sagadahoc bridge – a great place to pick up a sandwich for a road trip.

Another favorite establishment in Bath is Now You’re Cooking at 49 Front Street — providing quality cookware, gadgets, wine, gourmet foods and cooking classes since 2000. In my opinion, it is the best kitchen/cookware store in Maine.

The Road to Friendship

I have traveled and written about trips to mid-coast Maine several times and have always felt remiss about not stopping in to visit artists Sam Cady and K. Min. I left Route One in Waldoboro and followed Route 220, ten miles down the peninsula to Friendship, an authentic Maine harbor and village. There is not much to attract the average tourist, but it is an extremely charming and quiet retreat. One can find accommodations in a bed and breakfast, a meal at Jameson Point Lobster Co. and provisions can be purchased at Wallace’s Market where you can also catch up on local and worldly news.

K. Min

Sam and K. (pronounced “Kay Dot”) live in an old local house with more recent additions. They enjoy a view carpeted with ferns and low spruce down to the harbor. I spent my first hour with K. in her light-filled, high ceiling studio. Her paintings are neatly hung around the room, several that she is working on lean up against the wall, and there are stacks and rows of small plastic boxes containing the insects she has collected as models for her still life paintings.  “I do not kill them,” she defends, “I find them already dead by the doorway and in the garden and friends give me specimens.”

K. received her master’s degree from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Besides her small paintings of a collection of insects, many of her larger paintings depict empty rooms, often with an angled shaft or dappled spot of light radiating from an unseen source. These are quiet, elegant paintings that can evoke an emotion of sadness and at the same time, an emotion of peace and quiet.  The surfaces of the paintings are built up slowly with oil paint. There are no visual brush strokes, and the surfaces are smooth and flat.

I suggested that these quiet paintings reflect K.’s persona. She quickly corrected me and said “I try to have a quiet mind but I am not quiet inside. It is this balance that I try to make in my paintings.”

A recent suite of paintings depicts the corners of museum interiors and are titled after painters that she admires including Giorgio Morandi, Giorgio de Chirico, and Anthony Lopes Garcia. “Museums are complicated spaces. I was visiting the MET in New York and was overwhelmed by too many people and paintings, when I saw a random shadow cast by a guard rail that was protecting a painting. I thought it was so beautiful.” Her observations and interpretations of objects, spaces and places can be defined by Wabi Sabi – the ability to find beauty in imperfection and impermanence.

K. has exhibited both in Korea and the United States. She is represented by Caldbeck Gallery in Rockland Maine. Her work will be included in a group exhibition this October at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland and she has a solo show scheduled for January 2023 at Howard Yezerski Gallery, Boston.

Sam Cady

I crossed the yard to Sam’s studio, a small building that he built several years ago with funding from a Joan Mitchell Foundation grant. The side and back walls are plastered with snapshot photographs of favorite places, interspersed with his work and the work of artists that he admires and often pays homage to. The front wall has an arrangement of recent large-scale shaped canvases and other in-process canvases are scattered around the room.

Perhaps not quite as tidy as K.’s studio, but a reflection of the way Sam thinks and works. Before even talking about his work, he shared what he was currently reading. He expressed enthusiasm for Colin Woodward’s The Lobster Coast. “It really helps me better understand the people who live here in Friendship. Their history included murder, devastation, and kidnapping during the Indian wars. Things didn’t improve much under British rule. It is no wonder that Mainers have such a strong steak of independence and determination.” After thirty years of living in New York City, Sam came home to Maine in 2000 and to this day, can’t image living anywhere else. “I live in a community that is as interesting and dynamic as any big city.”

We moved on to reading a paragraph by the early 20^th century philosopher Nietzsche and then a couple good cartoons by Gary Larson. Studio visits can be both visual and mind-expanding experiences.

In 1967, soon after completing a master’s degree in art from Indiana University, Sam headed to New York City where he did odd jobs to support himself and his art practice. Although not considered a Pop artist his shaped and cutout canvases were a natural progression from the movement that included artists such as Any Warhol, Claes Oldenburg and Tom Wesselmann. His early paintings of singular objects and landscape fragments received praise and recognition when his piece Highway Fragment: Exit Overpass was accepted into the 1975 Whitney Biennial.

Throughout the following decades he has received numerous awards and has exhibited widely in the US and Japan with concentration in NYC, Boston and Maine where he is represented by Caldbeck Gallery in Rockland. He is currently completing a body of work for an upcoming solo exhibition at the Howard Yezerski Gallery in Boston.

He explained that after so many years focusing on form, shape, and color his work has new social/political implications. The juxtaposition of a highway overpass with a tent suggests homelessness. A massive breakwater symbolizes protection and separation.  He had already started working on a painting of a giant sunflower before the war in Ukraine began. His sunflower looks almost heroic, surging with confidence and optimism.  “It is as if all the years of painting have opened me up to wider realms of expression like the peeling of an onion.” His excitement for his new work and reflections was palpable and will be on full display in his Boston show which opens at the Howard Yezerski Gallery Gallery in Boston October 28^th and continues through December17th.

Click Here to read an article about Sam written by Edgar Been which appeared in the September 2002 issue of Downeast Magazine.

Rockland and fine dining

It is only a half hour drive from Friendship to Rockland which has become a hub for Maine art and artists. The Farnsworth Museum and the Center for Maine Contemporary Art are the non-profit anchor establishments that are complemented by many fine art galleries and a vibrant restaurant scene. I met Barbara Sullivan at the Caldbeck Gallery where her solo show was in its final week. I am a fan of her shaped fresco paintings, and based on sales of her work, I am not alone.

Although we didn’t have a reservation, we drove down Main Street to the restaurant Primo. Reservations must usually be made weeks in advance at this very popular restaurant, but if you arrive at the door at 5:00, you may be lucky as we were, and find an open table or seat at the bar. We enjoyed a delicious dinner with excellent service and a perfect conclusion to my day on the road and visits with artists.

George Lloyd

I broke up my return trip by stopping in Portland to have lunch with George Lloyd, a dear friend, and an artist with an intriguing bi-coastal career. I always feel the need for a well-fortified breakfast before I meet with George. He is a fast talker, spewing names of artists and exhibitions, jumping topics, subdued one minute, overly excited the next. He is passionate about art and is extremely knowledgeable about art history. He credits many who came before him, often referencing everything from classical figures on Greek urns to the exuberant brushwork in a John Singer Sargent painting.

George is a native of Boston. He received his bachelor’s degree at the Rhode Island School of Design and his master’s of fine art at Yale. In 1969 he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to teach at UC, Berkeley. These California years were a pivotable period for the artist. In the early 70’s he participated in weekly figurative drawing sessions with Joan Brown, Elmer Bischoff and others in the Bay Area.

He moved to Portland in 1984 and continued to exhibit in California as well as New England. He never left behind his interest in the figure even as he explored other themes with elements of atchitecture and geometry. Even in his most recent work, there is often a shadow of a figure peeking through. It doesn’t matter to me if he is exploring abstraction or the figure – I just think of his work as damn good paintng.

Over the years, I gave George several one-person shows at the George Marshall Store Gallery and am particularly proud of his 2018 show titled “Time and Again,” which combined work from the 70’s in California with more recent work. Art reviewer Daniel Kany titled his article “Seductive power of George Lloyd’s brushwork – He knits together many of the best parts of American painting from both coasts well enough to take them someplace completely new.”

George is represented in Portland by Greenhut Galleries and Cove Street Arts. Owners Kelley Lehr and John Danos are very enthusiastic about his work and have given him a studio space at their Cove Street location, naming him their first Artist in Residence. An exhibition of the work from this residency will be presented in a future solo exhibition.

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I have done it – finished an article after too long of a hiatus. I thoroughly enjoy my visits with artists and discovering other things along the way. People often ask me if I miss the gallery. I reply “not too much but I do miss the people.” This newsletter helps me continue to feel connected. Thank you for reading.

P.S. Some people also ask me “What has happened to the gallery.” I am pleased to say that Kate Rasche is the new director of the George Marshall Store Gallery. I gave her the URL for the gallery but if you want to receive her announcements, please visit the gallery, or sign up on the website. She is doing a great job and it is such a special place.

September’s Baccalaureate

A combination is

Of Crickets — Crows — and Retrospects

And a dissembling Breeze

That hints without assuming —

An Innuendo sear

That makes the Heart put up its Fun

And turn Philosopher.

Emily Dickinson

The transition from summer to fall is, to me, one of the most poignant changes of season. Noticeable are the deafening sound of evening crickets, the departure of the birds that have been regular visitors to our feeders, and long, yellow afternoon shadows. The month of “September” rhymes with “remember” and it seems appropriate to be a time for remembrances.

I always enthusiastically looked forward to going back to school. I remember my sisters and I studying every page of the half-inch thick college issues of Glamour and Mademoiselle magazines. Our favorite section was called “Dos and Don’ts,” photographs of girls on the street wearing something very wrong, compared with a photograph of someone else being fashionable and doing it just right.  The editors printed black masks on the offending girls to obscure their identity and we were determined never to make similar fashion faux pas.

My school years and those of my grown children are long behind me, however I still find September a time when I want to start something new. Without the structure of a curriculum, it is harder to get started. We have been watching the U.S. Open Tennis tournament and I am reminded of this quote by tennis great, Arthur Ashe: “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”

This month I never found a definitive destination or direction to take, so the focus of this newsletter is to share some of my close-to-home ramblings. Early in the month, I visited artists Lincoln Perry, Michael Walek and Todd Bezold, and on a beautiful Saturday I went to Sanctuary Arts and the Green Foundry in Eliot for their open house. I also enjoyed visiting with Amy Clark at her Ocean Fire Pottery on Woodbridge Road in York.

Lincoln Perry – Painter, Sculptor and Writer

A visit with Lincoln Perry is always edifying. I began my recent visit with him in his third-floor studio at his York home. Leaning against the wall was a very large and dramatic painting called Decameron. (68″ x 96,” oil on canvas, 2018) Lincoln explained that this painting and others were inspired by his reading of the book of the same title by the 14th-century Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio. The book contains 100 tales told by a group of seven young women and three young men who were quarantining in a villa outside of Florence to escape the Black Death that was ravaging the city. He found it an odd coincidence that just prior to the arrival of Covid he was painting images of the plague.

Lincoln often bases his series of paintings and sculpture on historical themes and mythology. Writer and publisher, Josh Bodwell, describes him as an artist “obsessed by learning from the past and translating it into something new.” Lincoln admitted that his personal experience with this past year and a half have made him want to find new challenges, learn new things and explore subject matter that he cares about.  

In the beginning… Lincoln’s most recent subject is the story of Adam and Eve and he has given himself the challenge of sculpting their story in marble. His process begins with numerous drawings, working from a live model, and doing preliminary sculptural sketches in wax. His studies explore endless combinations of the two figures including one where Adam is hoisting Eve to pick the apple. “Why should Eve get all the blame for getting tossed out,” he quips.

We continued our conversation in his sculpture studio, a small building he constructed several years ago in the field below the house. Here he is free to make endless noise and dust without disturbing his wife Ann Beatie, whose writing studio is in the house. “It is a fallacy that the figure is in the marble waiting for the sculptor to release it,” he explains. In fact, it is incredibly difficult to determine how to carve and chip away the stone, keeping in mind the design and hopefully avoiding breakage. Not happy with the stones he was working on from Vermont, he invested in having Carrara marble shipped from Italy and purchased numerous new tools, only to be very disappointed with what he got. “It was so frustrating, after all this investment in time and money, I was about to give it up. But then, I said calm down, and just keep at it.”

I so admire Lincoln’s dedication to his art, his curious mind, and intellect. He often takes a break from painting and sculpting to write – mostly about art. “Seeing Like an Artist: What Artists Perceive in the Art of Others” is a collection of his essays soon to be published by Godine Press.

Inspired by my visit, I came away wanting to learn new things too. It’s that time of year.

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Sanctuary Arts and the Green Foundry

Wasting no time, I signed up for a drawing class at Sanctuary Arts. In 1997, artist Christopher Gowell purchased an old church building on Bolt Hill Road in Eliot, converting the building into a community art space that focuses on fine art education. Throughout the year, classes are offered in painting, drawing, ceramics, jewelry, print making, and sculpting. This year’s offerings also include beginner blade-smithing with Josh Dow. The curriculum offerings are always expanding, and the classes are taught by extremely qualified instructors.

When signing up for my class, Christopher reminded me of the Green Foundry’s Annual Iron Pour and Open House scheduled for the next day. The Foundry is located on the Sanctuary Arts property and is both a teaching facility and a fine art metal-casting shop that provides sculpting, molding and casting services to artists and developers. 

I was so glad for her reminder. This annual iron pour event raises money for various non-profits. This year’s proceeds will benefit Sanctuary Arts’ scholarship program. For $15 participants can carve a design into a sand mold which is then cast by the foundry crew.

What a beautiful sight to see dozens of people, many families, sitting at tables under the trees, carving their designs into sand molds. A local three-piece band played music throughout the afternoon, and one could purchase food and drink and enjoy the beautiful grounds.

Everyone gathered at one o’clock to watch the molten iron poured from the large caldron and into smaller ladles and poured into our finished molds. Although I had come alone, I found many people whom I knew and felt like I made new friends too. The warmth of the late afternoon September sun was matched equally by the warmth and spirit of community. Be sure to watch for next year’s Iron Pour and consider learning something new too. Sanctuary Arts

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Ocean Fire Pottery

I cannot keep count of the dozens of times I have driven by Ocean Fire Pottery on Woodbridge Road and never bothered to stop. I was always curious, but just never slowed down and took the time. When I finally did the other day, I introduced myself to owner Amy Clark with a lengthy apology which she gracefully accepted and admitted she has made similar omissions.

Amy has a degree in 3-D design with a concentration in ceramics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. After some years of mobility after college followed by an apprenticeship in a Vermont studio, she settled in York 12 years ago, determined to make a living as a ceramic artist. Realistically she had to balance her artistic aspirations with restaurant work to make ends meet. Covid hit the restaurant industry hard last year and Amy gave up her part-time job and focused on her studio practice and business.

To adjust to Covid concerns, she moved her gallery from inside her house to a small tent in her driveway. She kept her open-air gallery open all last winter and invited other artists to join her for pop-up exhibits. She continued to host her “Holiday Extravaganza” for the first weekend in December to coincide with York’s Festival of Lights. Even though the town had to cancel their event, she carried on and still had a great season.



Besides selling work from her York studio, she participates in several craft shows – most recently at Laudholm Farm – and she will be at the Freeport Fall Festival October 2^nd and 3^rd. She describes her pottery as “earthy and substantial, designed and created to be used and enjoyed. I want each piece to be special, but not limited to special occasions. I create simple forms with natural colors in hopes of evoking serene, effortless emotions from the user.”

Besides her own line of pottery, she does production work and is open to commissions and wedding and gift registries. Although her hours can be variable and weather dependent, her goal is to be open daily. Don’t just drive by like I did, make a point of stopping in. Learn more about Amy and Ocean Fire Pottery in the following video which is also on her website. Ocean Fire Pottery

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Michael Walek and Todd Bezold

While we sat in the living room, which is filled with paintings and decorative objects, I asked them how art fits into their daily life. Michael explained that while he is working in someone else’s garden, he is not looking at individual plants, but rather stepping back and imagining a painting. “It isn’t always the structure of the plant, tree, or outcropping that I am looking at. I am more concerned with looking through these forms and considering the balance of negative and positive spaces – much like laying out a composition for a painting.”

Todd has a full-time job with Idexx, a technology firm in Westbrook Maine where he spends a good part of his day looking through a microscope. His degree in Molecular Biology focused on detail examination of pumpkin seeds. “The photographs that I took of those seeds turned out to be quite beautiful. I didn’t just see their biology; I was intrigued by their extraordinary color and forms. I think this detailed observation has really helped me with my painting.”

We discussed how not everyone sees as an artist sees. Many people might look at a tree and say “yes, it is a tree,” while an artist will look at a tree and see “color, texture, form and contrast.” Our conversation about observation continued and I told Michael and Todd how much I was looking forward to my drawing class – specifically a class in Botanical Drawing with Carol Ann Morley. It is not particularly a style of drawing that I aspire to, but I felt the discipline of close and exact observation and rendering will be a way to train my eye to be more observant and as Lincoln says “slow down and keep at it.”

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Click Here for a printable PDF of this newsletter

Monson, Maine – A place to stop and stay awhile

Earlier this summer, artist Barbara Sullivan suggested that I consider a visit to Monson, Maine. She would be teaching a fresco workshop at Monson Arts the week of July 12th and artist Michael Stasiuk would be teaching a found object sculpture class there at the same time. I know both artists very well and have visited their studios and shown their work, but here was an opportunity to visit them in their teaching environments in the beautiful North Maine Woods.

Barbara also encouraged me to contact a few other people that I might enjoy meeting while exploring the area. On her list were Dan Bouthot, director of Monson Arts, photographer Todd Watts, his wife, ceramic artist Jemma Gascoine, and painter Alan Bray. Needing no further incentive, I marked my calendar and asked my friend Susan MacDougall to join me on this two-and-a-half-day, multifaceted road trip.

Monson – A little history

The town of Monson is located three hours north of York and 20 minutes south of Moosehead Lake. The area has been a year-round vacation and outdoor recreation destination since the mid-nineteenth century. In the recent past, one would easily pass through the center of Monson without taking a second look, anxious to reach the ultimate destination of Greenville at the foot of Moosehead Lake.

The town of Monson was founded in 1822. Shortly thereafter, a large vein of black slate was discovered. Soon immigrants from Finland, Sweden and Wales came to Monson to work in the quarries. The Monson Historical Society proudly preserves the records of these early settlers. The slate business declined after WW1 and was replaced by a successful furniture factory which employed over 250 local people. That business ultimately failed in the early 2000s. Like many small Maine towns, Monson has seen better days. Artist Alan Bray, who grew up in Monson, recalls that no matter the ups and downs, the town always had a “can do” spirit and a strong sense of community.

In recent years, the town has been in decline, people moved away and houses and storefronts became derelict and even abandoned. One of the few remaining signs of life were the many hikers who stopped in the town for supplies before the final one hundred miles of the Appalachian Trail, ending at the summit of Mount Katahdin. 

A Transformation – Enter the Libra Foundation

In 2017, the foundation chose the town of Monson as an ideal location for an artists’ residency and Monson Arts was formed. The foundation purchased thirty-plus buildings and properties in the town, restored and retrofitted them using the skills and labor of the local community. The main street, that not long ago, was lined with boarded-up storefronts and peeling paint, suddenly gleamed with white clapboards and welcoming open flags.

The buildings are now used for studios, offices, galleries, and housing for Monson Arts which offers visual artists’ and writers’ workshops and residencies throughout the calendar year. I highly recommend that you read this article by Amy Sutherland, photographs by Michael Seamans that appeared in the September 2019 issue of Down East Magazine. It gives a full account of the people and challenges involved in this amazing project.

A warm welcome in Monson

Barbara Sullivan informed Dan Bouthot, director of Monson Arts, that we were coming to visit and that I would be sharing all that I would see and do with the readership of my newsletter. Because the residency program was not in full swing, Dan generously offered us a place to stay.

We were warmly welcomed, and immediately invited to have lunch with Barbara and Michael and their students. Marilou Ranta, owner and chef of the Quarry Restaurant, prepares three meals a day for workshop leaders and students, while also opening her gourmet restaurant to the general public. We had heard nothing but rave reviews about the cuisine.

After lunch Dan gave us the grand tour of Monson Arts. We began in the Studio Building where Barbara was teaching the art of fresco to four students. The second floor of the building has six private writing studios and a comfortable common area overlooking Lake Hebron. Just down the street is another beautifully restored building that houses offices for Monson Arts and a gallery.

Currently on view in the gallery is “Always Home: Wabanaki Traditional Arts,” an exquisite display of baskets and other fine crafts. Upstairs are more studio spaces, all designed and laid out with flexibility in mind.  For more information on the exhibition Click Here

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Michael Stasiuk

Based on the intense focus of the adult students enrolled in his workshop, his inspiration and teaching skills are appreciated at all age levels. He generously shared the contents of his “wooden scraps” bins and displayed joinery samples, construction techniques and finished pieces.

Click Here to view an interview with Michael which appeared on New Hampshire Chronicle, and here is a link to his website.

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Barbara Sullivan

We circled back to see how Barbara’s students were progressing. They were hard at work layering wet plaster and grinding pigments with glass mullers. Barbara is incredibly creative and certainly the only person that I am aware of who works in the age-old medium of fresco. Her portable frescos include domestic objects such as kitchen appliances and woodshop tools, food, and wonderful creatures such as animals, birds and insects. Through the end of this year, Barbara has a one-person show at Gemma Gascoine’s gallery just down the street, subtitled “Fresco Bas-Relief Sculptures of Common Everyday Situations.” It is pure delight. To learn more about Barbara, please read this article by Carl Little and visit her page on the Caldbeck Gallery website where she exhibits.

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Gascoine and Watts

Next door to the General Store is Jemma Gascoine’s ceramic studio and gallery. Jemma exhibits her work as well as other ceramic artists. She also teaches and curates a gallery on the second floor. She willingly shares information about her sculpture, and other work which includes beautiful, functional bowls and platters, many with bright-colored glazes. She retains her charming lilting British accent, even though she has been in the U.S. ever since she met and married photographer Todd Watts over twenty years ago. Jemma’s website.

Jemma and Todd are central figures in the Monson arts community. Berenice Abbott who is best known for her iconic photographs of New York City in the 30s, met Todd a native New Yorker in 1973 and he subsequently printed all of her portfolios in his New York Studio. Abbott, who died in 1991 at the age of 93, lived in Blanchard from the mid sixties until 1981 when she moved down the road to Monson. Abbott convinced Todd to buy the house next door to hers in 1974 and in 1999 he and Jemma Gascoine moved into that house, installed a ceramics sculpture studio and constructed a building to house a state-of-the-art photography studio across the road. 

On our second morning, Todd gave us a complete tour of the large studio which is equipped to make both digital and analog prints. Photographers come from all over the world to work with Todd in his studio. Todd explained, “the artists feel like they are on safari when they come to Blanchard.” Beginning this year, Monson Arts will include a photography residency, the Abbott Watts Residency, in Watts’ studio, thus greatly expanding their offerings in digital and analog photography. Todd Watts Website

Susan and I were immensely impressed with Todd’s large format prints that were hanging in the studio. Art critic and writer Edgar Allen Beem describes Watts’ photographs as “wildly colorful, fantastical images aimed not at capturing the natural world but at conjuring a mystical, metaphorical reality. He doesn’t take photographs, he makes them.” I encourage you to read Beem’s full article about Watts and Gascoine which appeared in Down East Magazine.

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Warning: Slippery Rocks and Roots!

The other hike that we did (attempted) was the Borestone Mountain Audubon Sanctuary, just a few miles outside of town. The first part of the trail is a lovely walk through old growth forest that leads to a pond and staffed visitor center. Beyond there it gets a bit steeper and the final ascent to the summit is best on your hands and knees and grabbing onto metal handholds. We made it just shy of the summit, but were pleased enough with our effort and the views of the ponds below.

For outdoor enthusiasts, there is plenty to enjoy in the area including a boat excursion on Moosehead Lake. The retrofitted 1917 steamship Katahdin has daily tours of the lake. One can also take a boat shuttle from Rockwood, on the western shore of the lake, to Mount Kineo State Park. The trails are described as easy with rewarding views at the summit. (That’s on my list for next time.)

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Alan Bray

Our final stop on our way home was a visit with Maine artist Alan Bray who grew up in Monson and now lives several miles south in the town of Sangerville. Alan paints in casein, a milked-based tempera that, because of its very quick drying time, is not easy to work with. He is one of the few Maine painters who uses it and the skill and patience that the medium requires is well-suited to his landscape paintings.

From what I have read about his work and from our conversations, I realize that he is totally committed to his local landscape and the natural world. His subject matter is the woods, fields and mountains in his immediate area. The paintings are as much about the spirituality of the places as the reality. 

We so enjoyed visiting with Alan and hearing his tales of growing up in Monson, a town he is very proud of. To learn more about Alan, here is a link to his website and two interviews, both very interesting and insightful. Interview 1 and Interview 2

Our drive home was easy and full of conversation as we remembered all that we had seen and done.

One of my favorite road trips has always been to head “Down East,” leaving the major highways north of Portland and taking the roads less traveled. The coast of Maine measures 228 miles, but the actual coastal coastline measures 3,478, when you take-into-account the craggy peninsulas, coves and islands. The trip I took last week only took a nibble out of this serpentine trail and included the towns of Bath, Woolwich, Lincolnville and Phippsburg with some favorite stops along the way.

Studio Visit with Siri Beckman

Beckman Prints: Machias Cod / Pileated Woodpecker / Hearts, Button and Fish / Crossing the Field

Over the Sagadahoc Bridge to Tom Paiement’s Studio

Off the Beaten Path Specialities

^{In the summertime, traffic on Route One can be intense, especially through Wiscasset, which boasts being “The prettiest village in Maine.” Some of my favorite detours and stops include Alewives Fabrics In Damariscotta Mills, Beth’s Farm Stand in Warren, and my favorite is Morses’s Saurerkraut in Waldoboro.}

In addition to their signature sauerkraut, they produce a variety of traditional crock pickles, relishes, mustards and horseradish. Who would have thought one would find such a wide variety of cured meats, sausages, cheese, craft beer and wine from across Northern Europe on this Maine back road. Their restaurant is closed at the moment, but when it reopens, go for the Apple Strudel “mit Schlag” (whipped cream.) These are all worthy places to stop. Click on their links above for more information.

An afternoon and evening in Lincolnville Center

Although one could make a day trip to this part of the mid-coast, my plan was to spend the night with my friend/artist Barbara Sullivan who had just moved to Lincolnville from Solon, Maine. Barbara is best known for her frescos and I will write more about her work in a future newsletter. Since she was only just getting settled in her new house, and a house guest could be an imposition, I endeared myself by bringing pasta and a White Bolognese sauce for our dinner. Barbara made it a party by inviting artists Sam Cady and Stan Sante to join us. We all were fully vaccinated, and it was a very jolly and back to normal evening.

A visit with Siem van der Ven and Kate Braestrup

Ceramic artist Siem van der Ven and his wife Kate Braestrup live just around the corner from the Lincolnville General Store.

Siem’s ceramics are exquisite and explore many different forms, both sculptural and functional, stoneware and porcelain, gas and wood fired. During my visit he explained his techniques to make his dimpled patterns using German designed tools and vacuum air filters. View more of his work on his website.

He is a very likeable and approachable man and that is summed up in his bio statement. “I follow these threads through my life: making things, cooking, drawing, sailing, teaching, being a father (the very best work I’ve been a part of). I have never let go of the stage in which I learn from my fingertips inward.”

Day Two – Phippsburg and artist Dan Dowd