watercolor Archives - Leslie Landrigan

July 3, 2019July 8, 2019

The Stonington Public Library: Summer Home for a Whole Bunch of Paintings

Last winter (which ended a few days ago) the Stonington Public Library trustees asked me to be the summer artist. “Sure,” I said.

Of course I said ‘sure.’ I’d be following in the footsteps of Jill Hoy and Frederica Marshall, artists whose work I’ve admired on the library’s walls.

Stonington Public Library

The Stonington Public Library is also a lovely setting for paintings, a clean, well-lighted place that overlooks Stonington Harbor. On clear days the sunlight bounces off the sea and throws a radiance into the old building. On gloomy days, of which we have had many, the Stonington Public Library is a refuge from cold and loneliness, a place where the librarian never says “Shush.”

And despite its small size, the library has access to boatloads of information through its databases and interlibrary loans. The Stonington Public Library helped me and Dan research our book, Bar Harbor Babylon, true stories about billionaires behaving badly. You can borrow it from the library, or order it here.

But it took me a long time to realize that even a small library has a lot of wall space.

Does Size Matter?

I started putting my paintings up in the spring. One librarian begged me to hang a large, colorful painting on the big bare white wall in the bathroom. (Note: It’s the brand-new, handicapped-accessible public bathroom made possible in part by donations from Stephen King).

So I hung one of my biggest paintings, Settlement Quarry, on that wall.

It didn’t look that big.

I took all my available large paintings and hung them on the library walls. I put the painting of Scotts Island – where Robert McCloskey lived – in the children’s room. Right across from the librarian’s desk I hung one of my favorite watercolors, a mother and daughter climbing the steps of the Library of Congress.

Steps to Parnassus. Watercolor on 140-lb. paper. 6″ by 9.5″.

I stuck framed watercolors and small oils on the shelves. I framed more watercolors and brought them in. For a while it seemed I was constantly schlepping paintings to the library. I started to worry. Could I hang enough paintings by the Fourth of July, when summer really comes to Downeast Maine?

One sunny, peaceful morning I was walking to the village and a fisherman caught my eye. He was slowly driving a skiff on a sheet of cobalt blue, heading out to the lobster boats in the distance. It was a transcendent moment. Or maybe just one hell of a commute. Or both. I took a bunch of photos with my trusty cell phone and resolved to paint that image. Big.

The Skiff

So I threw myself into that painting, getting to the studio at the crack of dawn and working furiously on it. Two days before I promised to have all the paintings in the library I painted the bottom edge of the canvas with a drying medium. I left the painting upside down on the easel. The next day I got to the studio and found the paint still wet on the bottom. No worries, I said to myself. I can paint upside down. Sometimes that’s better.

Well, it wasn’t. When I hung the painting right side up (and still a little wet) in the library’s big stairwell, I realized I’d painted an anatomically incorrect fisherman and a boat that wouldn’t last long on the water.

People didn’t seem to notice. But I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I had to fix that fisherman and that boat.

So I sneaked into the library one evening (I’m on the board of trustees and I have a key) and swiped my painting. I took it to my studio, where I worked on it to the point where I could sleep at night again.

I’ll unveil The Skiff 2.0 on Friday, July 5, at the Stonington Public Library with drinks and nibbles and about 40 other paintings. Please stop in and say hello!

Update

Here’s the new and improved Skiff, probably still a little damp:

March 18, 2019March 18, 2019

Incite Art, Create Community

A bumper sticker that says “Incite Art, Create Community” decorates quite a few cars here on Deer Isle (along with “Fish Forever”). Opera House Arts (aka the Opera House) has been selling it for about 20 years, and I experienced its full meaning just the other day.

Incite Art, Create Community

It all started last summer, when my friend Katy Allgeyer decided to incite art, create community by staging an exhibit at her Art By Katy gallery for me and another Leslie married to a Dan, Leslie Anderson. I didn’t know Leslie well, but got to know her during our show, which Katy called Leslie Squared. (You can see my paintings here.)

Then one day in the fall Leslie asked me if I’d like to go painting with her. Of course I did.

So on a gorgeous day in late September we climbed Kezar Mountain in Little Deer Isle and looked down at a smattering of islands. The children’s book author, Robert McCloskey, lived on the island that looked like a pie with a slice cut out – Scott Island.

incite-art-leslie-anderson — That’s Scott Island in the background, Leslie Anderson holding her painting.

I’d actually interviewed McCloskey, sort of, when I was an Associated Press reporter in Boston. Some kid from Boston College had stolen one of the bronze Make Way for Ducklings ducks in the Public Garden. When they found it – in the BC library, I think – I called up McCloskey and asked him what he thought of the theft. “No!” he said. Then he hung up on me. I didn’t blame him one little bit.

Up on Kezar Mountain I painted Scott Island on an Arches watercolor block, which has a flap that protects the paper. Then I took it home, left it on the block and forgot about it.

Sea Times

Six months later, the Opera House presented Sea Times – local actors portraying Deer Isle old-timers who’d been interviewed by middle school students in the 1980s. They told 20 stories of winter on Deer Isle in the olden days. One reenactor portrayed Robert McCloskey, who talked about the first and only time he spent the winter on Scott Island with his wife and infant daughter.

The next day I was looking for something in my messy studio and came across the painting of Scott Island. So I posted it on my Facebook page and wrote, “Funny thing…” and told the story.

Then a friend who lives on Deer Isle wanted to know if the painting was for sale. Of course it was. She had gotten to know Robert McCloskey’s daughter Jane and grown fond of her, liked the painting and wanted to buy it.

So hours later Dan and I dropped “Scott Island” off at her home. We had a nice chat about our community and then left with good feeling all round.

By the way, I later painted Leslie painting on top of Kezar Mountain.

pop-up-kezar — Kezar Mountain, oil on canvas, 8″ by 10.”

That’s how it happens. Incite art, create community.

December 15, 2018

Some New Paintings and a New Library Venue

This summer I ventured beyond Deer Isle — not that far, but still I ventured. And then I finished up the year with a snowscape of Stonington that I’ve been wanting to do since, oh, last winter.

The Stonington Library

You can’t quite see the Stonington Public Library in the painting — it’s behind the building to the right. But now about a dozen of my paintings are hanging on the library walls. I’d like to put up a few more, but I’ve got to find frames for them first.

The Stonington Library recently underwent a major renovation, and now it’s even more of a jewel. There’s a new reading nook, a handicapped-accessible public bathroom (a very big deal in an island tourist community) and a new energy efficient furnace. Sadly, the fabulous Vicki Zelnick, who has done wonders with the library, will retire soon. I’ll miss her.

Brooklin

I’ve already posted my first painting of Brooklin here, called Naskeag Point. And my second, come to think of it — Wooden Boat — here.

Recently I finished another one, a watercolor called Wooden Boat School Buoys for fairly obvious reasons.

I know the whole buoys-hanging-from-a-tree thing is a cliche, but these had so much energy I had to paint them. Besides, as an art history teacher once said, There’s a good reason cliches become cliches.

Monhegan

Here’s a watercolor of Monhegan Island from the stern of the Laura B (or was it the Elizabeth Ann?) Anyhoo, I’d been immersing myself in Andrew Wyeth’s paintings, both at the Farnsworth Museum and at the Wyeth gallery on the second floor of the Port Clyde General Store. One Wyeth painting, an overhead view of a rushing stream called The Carry, really wowed me. Later, as I sat looking out at the wake of the boat I got inspired to paint this.

Then I did a couple of small oils, again inspired by a day trip to Monhegan on a sunny fall day.

December 1, 2018

Holiday Pop-Up Market at DIAA

Some brand-new cards along with old favorites of mine are on sale for a one-day only pop-up market at the Deer Isle Artists Association from 10 am to 5 pm on Saturday, December 1 at the DIAA Gallery.

I’ve been wanting to paint a snow scene of Stonington for a long time, so this fall I buckled down and painted this watercolor of the town from the harbor.

I made cards of the painting, which are on sale at the pop-up market.

Cindy Bourque-Simonds, DIAA’s most tireless board member, runs the pop-up market by herself. “This is a different kind of a show for us, because many of our artists are trying something new and pricing them as affordable gifts,” she said for the official press release.

New Oil Paintings

For me, something new is an oil painting of the kayak launch at the Wooden Boat School in Brooklin, Maine.

pop-up-wooden-boat — Wooden Boat, oil on canvas

That, too, is on sale at the pop-up market, along with a small oil painting of my friend Leslie Anderson. We painted together last fall on the top of Kezar Mountain in Little Deer Isle. As you can see I painted it loosely, which was quite fun.

Next on my agenda: I have some big — for me at least — wooden panels. They’re two feet by three feet, and I plan to finish them over the winter.

September 27, 2018

Essence of Island Life, the Last DIAA Show for 2018

Part of the essence of island life, at least in Maine, is that summer comes to a screeching halt. All of a sudden the take-out shacks close, the summer homes close up and lobster gear (including fishing boats) start to fill the yards.

On Sept. 25, the Deer Isle Artists Association opened the final show of the season, “Essence of Island Life.” I don’t always pay as much attention as I should to the DIAA exhibit themes, but this time I did.

Essence of Island Life

I submitted three oil paintings and three watercolors, and all arguably depict the essence of island life. Two small oils feature Eggemoggin Reach, which separates Deer Isle from what William Butler Yeats once called ‘the old bitter continent.’

And then the biggest oil painting I’ve ever done: Naskeag Point. OK, Naskeag Point is a peninsula in Brooklin, Maine, which isn’t exactly an island. But I think the trees, the islands, the water and the clouds do give a fair representation of the essence of island life.

essence-of-island-life-naskeag-point — Naskeag Point, oil on canvas

My watercolor Powder Island shows a familiar scene in Stonington Harbor. Fishing boats and dories pass it all day long on the way to and from Fish Pier. The quarries on Crotch Island used to store powder on that middle island for blasting rock. The island quarries are a whole ‘nother story that can wait.

essence-of-island-life-powder-island — Powder Island, watercolor

The vantage point for Powder Island is from Inn on the Harbor. Dan and I stayed there while deciding exactly which coastal town in Maine we should move to. The inn helped us make up our mind.

One of the inn’s new owners, Dana Durst, was walking on a sandbar in Smalls Cove late one afternoon in July. Smalls Cove faces west and gets tremendous sunsets, but I almost prefer the quality of the pre-sunset light. I really like this painting, and I kind of hope no one buys it. Which usually means someone will.

So if you’re in Deer Isle, stop by and see The Essence of Island Life: An exhibit of baskets, painting, photography, pottery and weaving.The reception with artists (which, sadly, I will miss) is on Sunday, Sept. 30, from 3-5 pm at the DIAA gallery in Deer Isle.

August 28, 2018

Small Works Show at DIAA

The popular Small Works exhibit begins at the Deer Isle Artist Association on August 28 at 10 am and runs for two weeks.

I have seven small paintings in the show, including four oil paintings of Ames Pond, two watercolors of Brooksville, Maine, and one watercolor of Ossipee Mountain in New Hampshire.

Ames Pond, much loved in Stonington, proves you don’t need to go to Giverny to paint water lilies. Ames Pond used to be a meadow until it was dammed to make ice. For many years, people on Deer Isle cut ice from Ames Pond for their own use, and to ship to the West Indies for trade.

small-works-ames-pond — Ames Pond I. Oil on canvas.

Around 1932, a Deer Islander planted pink waterlilies in the pond, and they proliferated. The beavers love to eat their roots.

small-works-ames-pond-2 — Ames Pond II. Oil on canvas.

Between 9 am and 2 pm in summer, the pink waterliles, as well as the wild white and yellow ones, open to the sun.

small-works-ames-pond-3 — Ames Pond III. Oil on canvas.

I spent many hours as a young adult in front of Monet’s water lilies. I just loved them. Then after a while I got sick of them. Perhaps I saw them on too many NPR tote bags, or at least thought I did.

But then, as a painter living in Maine, I found it difficult NOT to paint Ames Pond. And I also found it nearly impossible NOT to take a page from Old Claude.

Other Small Works Paintings

Every Tuesday morning this summer you’ll find me selling prints, cards and paintings at the Brooksville Farmers Market.

I’ve wanted to paint Buck’s Market, a wonderful old general store near the market, since I first laid eyes on it. Many, many photographs later, I finally came up with images I could use for a watercolor:

small-works-bucks-market — Buck’s Market. Watercolor.

Brooksville people ask me if I have any paintings of Cape Rosier, a lovely wild peninsula in Brooksville. As a result, I do– at the Small Works show.

small-works-cape-rosier — Cape Rosier. Watercolor.

Finally, just to mix things up, I finished a long-unfinished watercolor of Ossipee Mountain for the Small Works show. It was certainly a relief to paint snow after all that sunlight and greenery!

DIS Friday in Stonington at the Island Agency

I’ll be selling new watercolor paintings, some oldies but goodies, prints, notecards and postcards at the Island Agency in Stonington on Friday, July 6. It’s DIS Friday (Deer Isle-Stonington for the uninitiated), which goes from 5-7 pm in downtown Stonington.

Wine and hors d’oeuvres are inseparable from art, so I’ll have those on hand, too!

Here’s one of my favorite new paintings I’ll bring along:

It’s a scene from just past the causeway across from Scott’s Landing.

I’ll also bring along a couple of watercolors with more somber palettes. This one, for example, also shows a scene from the causeway, but in November.

november-sunset — November Sunset, watercolor, 12″ by 16″.

It reflected my mood at the time. I believe our furnace had just gone on the fritz.

Changing Seasons, Changing Palette

I’ve noticed, though, that my paintings get darker and more muted in the winter, and brighter and sunnier in the summer.

For example, here’s a watercolor I did of the forest floor at the Island Heritage Trust’s Tennis Reservation.

I painted Tennis in April, when it’s cold and raw and overcast every single day. Or at least it seems like that.

But then comes summer and my palette gets a lot brighter — especially when the lupines come out.

lupine-madness-smaller — Lupine Madness, watercolor, 11.5″ by 11.5″

Tomorrow at the Island Agency I’ll be selling matted prints of Lupine Madness, Deer Isle Morningand other paintings of Deer Isle for $20. I’ll also have prints of some paintings of interiors — which usually means cats.

Inventory isn’t my strong suit (I’m an artist, after all), but I will have some notecards and postcards for sale as well. And all the paintings shown here are available as small (4.5″ by 6.5″ in 8″ by 10″ mats) for $20.

So please stop by the Island Agency tomorrow and check out my artwork.

June 17, 2018

Paintings and Prints at DIAA “Distinctive Marks” Show

I’ll have both paintings and prints in the Deer Isle Artists Association show, Distinctive Marks, starting Tuesday, June 19. My paintings will all be watercolor (though I am doing oils these days too), and they’re all new.

Like this one:

distinctinve-marks-barred-island — Barred Island

All my work for this show will be landscapes. Because they were painted between November and June, the palette ranges from somber to bright.

November Sunset, for example, shows Causeway Beach in (you guessed it) November. As I recall I painted it just after the furnace went out on a very cold day.

November Sunset, watercolor, 12″ by 16″.

A very long, wet, dreary spring followed our very long winter here in Maine. Only recently did the temperature exceed 70 — and that was in June, for godsake. But suddenly the sky cleared, the sun came out and the flowers bloomed. Many, many flowers bloomed, and they did it all at once.

So after toiling over a muted palette I wanted to paint something bright and exuberant. I had plenty of scenes to choose from, but I picked one of my favorite views: from Highland Avenue in Stonington, looking down at the harbor.

Distinctive Marks is an exhibit of 3-D works, painting, photographs, pottery and sculpture . Also showing work in the Distinctive Marks show will be Emily Brett Lukens. Ron Deprez, Mary Eaton, Steve Ettlinger, Alan Flowers, Stephan Haley, Jill Kofton, Jerry Levitt, Luna Lyman, Julie Meranze-Levitt, Woodley Osborne, Cynthia Stroud-Watson, Maura Tillotson and Alice Wilkinson.

A reception for the artists will be held Sunday, June 24, from 3-5 pm at the DIAA gallery.

The Deer Isle Artists Association, founded in 1972,

Founded in 1972, the Deer Isle Artists Association is a member-run nonprofit organization committed to creating and exhibiting art. Our more than 100 members include painters, sculptors, printmakers, jewelers, fiber artists, photographers, ceramicists and other artists.

Prints for Sale at the Deer Isle Artists Association

My prints of Deer Isle landscapes are now on sale for $30 at the Deer Isle Artists Association. They’re in the Art Rack at the DIAA’s first exhibit of the season, “In Praise of Hands.”

One print, Allen Cove, appeared in the Island Advantages to promote the show. It sold quickly, but I’ve replaced it with another.

In case you’re wondering, Allen Cove is right down the road from my home in Stonington.

You can buy three other prints of Deer Isle scenes — the Lily Pond, Eggemoggin Reach and HIghland Avenue in Stonington. The fourth is for cat lovers:

brownie-and-gracie — Brownie and Gracie.

The DIAA “In Praise of Hands” exhibit supports DIAA’s educational outreach activities. The show includes baskets, ceramics,
fiber, photographs, sculpture, painting and prints.

DIAA will also have postcards, notecards, books and calendars on sale all summer long. They’re all created by member artists.

We host an artists’ reception on the afternoon of Sunday, May 27, from 3-5 at the gallery. The other artists include Betsy Braunhut, Cindy Bourque-Simonds, Pat White, Jill Kofton, David Kofton, David McBeth, Mary Eaton and Carolyn Raedle.

Feel free to stop by if you happen to be on Deer Isle this Memorial Day weekend.

About DIAA

DIAA celebrates its 45th anniversary this year. Members have opportunities to exhibit new work and be part of a vibrant and supportive group of artists working in various fine art and fine craft media.

We are a community of approximately 100 artists (painters, sculptors, printmakers, jewelers, photographers, fiber artists and more) and patrons interested in the arts. Most of us live in Maine at least part of the year, but there is no residency requirement.

Exhibitions change every two weeks during the summer months and the gallery is open from 10 am to 5 pm every day except Monday.

The gallery is located at 15 Main St., Deer Isle, Maine.

Industrial Maine: Our Other Landscape

The Industrial Maine exhibit at the Atrium Gallery in Lewiston motivated me to paint something that makes me angry.

Usually I paint scenes that delight or surprise me. But for a long time I’ve had the urge to paint something that infuriates me — like the dismantling of U.S. manufacturing.

And if that sounds abstract to you, just ask yourself how Donald Trump got elected.

So when I saw the call for artists for the exhibit, “Industrial Maine: Our Other Landscape,” I already knew what I wanted to paint.

Industrial Maine

Industrial Maine belongs to the past, really. Mills and factories used to support tens of thousands of families in Maine. Now, however, tourism ranks as the state’s No. 1 industry. And the tourist dollar can be a hard one to earn.

Maine suffers deeply from the flight of manufacturing. You can see the evidence everywhere if you look beyond Portland or Camden or Castine. Food pantries in every town. Suicides reported in the newspapers. Syringes lying along the roadsides. Smoke pouring from the chimneys of ramshackle campers in the dead of winter.

The picturesque fishing village I live in, Stonington, used to have a sardine factory. It’s gone, like every other seafood canning business in North America. And a lot of jobs disappeared with it.

industrial-maine-exhibits-landrigan — Though Stonington lost its sardine factory, we still have lots of fishing.

We’re lucky in Stonington. We still have a shipyard. And we have a robust fishing industry, which dominates the local economy.

About an hour away from here in Bucksport, Maine, a giant paper mill used to employ hundreds of workers at good wages. Now it’s closed, and a Canadian scrap metal firm is tearing it down.

So I painted it. And then I got into the exhibit. Here’s a description of the exhibit:

Now on display in the Atrium Art Gallery at USM’s Lewiston-Auburn campus is an exhibit of paintings, photographs, prints, and sculpture by 27 Maine artists called “Industrial Maine: Our Other Landscape.”

Guest curator Janice L. Moore paints working factories and abandoned work sites throughout the state. She believes that, in Maine,

…we often reference our idealized natural state of forests, mountains, and coastline, but there is another overlooked landscape that tells an important truth about our culture, our history, and our potential.

Bucksport

Bucksport will survive. I hear a salmon fishery and a lobster processing company will move on to the property owned by the paper company.

But as for me, I’ve started to look at the landscape differently since painting the old paper mill. I’m now starting to see artistic possibilities in industrial Maine. And I’m thinking about painting ferry terminals, fuel storage tanks and abandoned sardine factories.

So stay tuned. And if you visit Lewiston, come see “Industrial Maine: Our Other Landscape.”