The Promise

This fishing boat, filled with lines and nets is part of Billy O'Reilly's arsenal of equipment he needs to make a living on Cliff Island. I took the photo for this a few years ago and the image has haunted me since. The upcoming Skyline Show, "Maine Harvest, Land and Sea", provides a venue for this painting and two others I'll be exhibiting about this subject. These works are part of an ongoing series that was started a few years ago and I'm excited about exploring this subject again.

Billy's property in winter is chock full of equipment like this...and so much more. I'm amazed at the amount of work and resources it takes to bring food in from the sea. This rugged dory along with several others around the property are stored safely on land for the next season's endeavors. They might look clumsy on land but in the water these hearty craft can take on big swells with ease.
Winslow Homer's paintings of fishermen show many of them working on dangerlously high seas in the same type of boats. The bow and stern are pointed to ensure that they ride right over the waves.
This painting and others as well as fine crafts by some of Maine's finest artists will be available for sale through Skyline Farm.

I'll post more info about that very soon with a link to see work by other artists in the show.

There will be an auction of donated works too.....and you can bid on line.

This is acrylic on canvas.

Tied Up

I've been busy working on a small series of paintings for the Skyline Farm and Carriage Museum fall exhibition and this year the show is titled, "Cornucopia -Maine Harvest from Land and Sea".
I returned to a subject matter that I started a few years ago about a lobsterman from Cliff Island, named Bill O'Reilly.

The Lobstering Industry here in Maine is going through very tough times with government regulations squeezing many out of business and lobster prices at an all time low. The situation is tense in some coastal areas and violence among the fishermen has been reported. ..This is life or death for the men and women who earn a living on the sea and now feel that their livelihood may be slipping away.

The show, which opens at the end of September, is a great opportunity to feature someone like Billy doing what he knows and loves so much...lobstering. Joann Lapomarda, who is Billy's long time partner and sometime Sternman, will be collaberating with me on a statement about their experiences for the show catalog. Some of the photos used as reference material for this work were also taken by Joann.

I'm particularly excited for a another reason as well. Included in this exhibit are many of Maine's finest crafts people. I'll talk more about the show exhibitors in my next blog..so stay tuned...

This painting is acrylic 30 x 24 gallery wrap canvas and will be available through Skyline.

Winter Inlet-Cliff Island

It's time to get into the show season again and there some great opportunities coming up.
Freeport Square Gallery is hosting an exhibit called 10" x 10" for all paintings or 3D pieces that are 10" or smaller. This is one of four 5" x 7" paintings going into the show.
I found this inlet on a trip to Cliff Island a few years ago. It was December and the summer people were gone and the locals were no where to be seen so I had the place to myself. The dirt road winds down to a lovely curved beach on the back of the island. Ice hadn't gripped the bay yet but I knew it was coming.
When I was a kid my family lived on Casco Bay. It was so cold one winter that most of the Bay froze and people could walk across the ice to some of the islands..(not Cliff though..it's more than ten miles out). There was a beach at the end of our road and I remember climbing over the icebergs that were piled up everywhere..some were a foot thick. That day a group of boys from the neighborhood headed out toward one of the islands and made it back to tell the tale. This winter reminds me of that time. This is Casein 5 x 7..(sorry about the reflection).
There are over 35 artists in the show..come if you can.. it runs for three weeks, with opening reception on Sunday.
I have a one person show at The Freeport Cabaret coming up soon. More on that later...

Chop

Cliff Island is the most remote inhabited island in Casco Bay and is eleven miles from the mainland.
The ferry ride takes an hour and a half and it's the last stop on the line. This gentleman, whose name is Billy O'Reilly, is one of only 65 hearty year 'round Cliff Islanders. He's a tall rugged lobsterman with a face that's been etched by a life of working on the sea. Billy's lineage traces back to one of the first families to settle the island more than two centuries ago and I have no doubt that he knows the waters around the island and bay as well as he knows the back of his hand. When the photos were taken for this painting it was a bitter cold December day, but the sun was so bright it lit up the dinghy like a red hot frying pan. Billy was hamming it up for the camera here.....hence the toothy grin just barely seen through his heavy beard. I love the simplicity of this image... just a man and his boat in the water.. but it's a bit surreal because they appear to be levitating over the deep blue.
Maybe he knows something we don't...
This is one of two paintings that were recently accepted into the Pastel Society of the West Coast's 21st International Exhibition, which runs May 8-June 2, at the Sacramento Fine Arts Center in Carmichael, CA .