Coasting

Harpswell Neck. Oil on canvas, 12x36.

I had the great good fortune, at the Sun Journal in Maine, to have Carol Coultas as my boss. At the time, Carol was the managing editor of the paper. Later, she took the unusual but completely understandable step of leaving management to become a business reporter. Recently, she left the Sun Journal all together, after working there for more than 20 years, to become the editor of MaineBiz, a business publication based in Portland. This is an interesting woman!

I saw her about a year ago, and she told me that a neighbor had died and left her, among other things, a bunch of frames. And she wanted to give them to me! Yippee!

So on this visit, I got to see Carol, and Kathryn Skelton, a friend and former reporter, in Portland last week, before Carol left for a vacation in Canada with her parents. She gave me directions to her house, and I arrived there one morning last week, woke her 18-year-old son, collected the frames and set out to explore Harpswell, where Carol lives.

It is just amazingly beautiful! It's a spit of land that sticks out into Casco Bay, in the Gulf of Maine. At the end of Harpswell, you can see some islands - I know Orr's Island and Bailey Island are close to Harpswell, but no one I spoke with as I painted could tell me exactly what I was painting.

I had a lovely morning, taking in beautiful Harpswell, and painting in the sun and the wind. I had a delicious scallop dinner, too. What day wouldn't be great with something like that in the middle? So thanks to Carol, for the frames and for the impetus to visit Harpswell.

All that said, though, I've worked on this painting here at home, but I'm still not thrilled with it. I think it's too symmetrical - and I didn't achieve the sense of scale that I was trying for. But I have the painting, and plenty of pictures, and so I can - and will - have another go at it.

Thanks for reading!