The Island Heritage Trust Wings, Waves and Woods

Eight of my watercolors are on exhibit in the Island Heritage Trust barn from May 5 to May 25.  The occasion: The Island Heritage Trust birding festival, known as Wings, Waves and Woods.

Wings, Waves & Woods runs from May 18-20, and kicks off the summer tourist season on Deer Isle. It features walks and cruises to see puffins, harlequin ducks, guillemots, bald eagles, great cormorants, eiders, osprey…you get the idea.

Some of the best things about Deer Isle are the conservation lands owned by the Island Heritage Trust.

Dan and I hike most of the Deer Isle trails owned by the Island Heritage Trust. In summer and fall, Dan and I hike them nearly every day.

Then I paint them.

This year, the Island Heritage Trust sponsored an art exhibit in its barn.  My friend Carolyn Walton invited me to participate in the exhibit.

So I decided to submit watercolors inspired by the IHT conservation lands.

Before Franklin Roosevelt built the Deer Isle Bridge, the ferryboat from the mainland landed at Scott’s — hence the name, Scott’s Landing.

We often go to Scott’s Landing, and I’m often amazed we’re the only ones tramping around these 24 lovely acres. We often hike through the old fields to the sand beach, where we get yelled at by crows, watch the tide go in and out of Eggemoggin Reach and scour the beach for glass.

Here’s Dan tying his boot at Scott’s in winter.

Deer Isle is really an archipelago connected by causeways, like the one that connects Little Deer with Deer Island. Clammers often dig for the little bivalves in the muck off Causeway Beach — also owned by the Island Heritage Trust.

Below is a painting of a November sunset off Causeway Beach.

You walk a challenging mile through a mossy, ferny forest until you reach a panoramic view of Isle Au Haut, Mark Island and Penobscot Bay. Low tide exposes a wide sandbar connected to Barred Island. Frederick Law Olmsted used to own the land and wisely chose not to improve upon it. One of his descendants donated the land to the Nature Conservancy, and the Island Heritage Trust manages it.

This painting shows the sand bar at low tide. Barred Island is on the left.

Tennis

I also painted a few new watercolors, including the lobster claw above. I stumbled across that on one of the Tennis hiking trails.

So if you’re in or near Deer Isle, stop by the IHT barn and check out my paintings of IHT lands.