Sunny Summer Days

On Miscou Island

Oil on canvas, 12x24

commission

It's a delight when I open my email or answer my phone and there's someone there, wanting a painting. It was an extra special delight when I got an email from Tracee, wanting to know if my painting of Miscou Island, New Brunswick, was still available. 

It was not, but I told her I'd be happy to make one for her that captured the same scene as the first one, and she was delighted. The painting was to be a gift, and Miscou Island had special meaning for her entire family, as her grandmother had lived there as a young girl. 

In June 2010, I went to the Atlantic Provinces of Canada with Heather MacLeod (you can see some of her work by clicking here). We barely knew each other when we left , but we had a grand time, saw amazing and beautiful places, made a lot of paintings, and laughed until our sides hurt. 

Painting Miscou Island again brought back all that delight, and all that sense of discovery and exploration. And it made me want to go back! 

The painting below was another commission from a supporter who loved the original painting that I made, as part of a six-piece commission. He wanted the beach ball to have the colors of the Rainbow Flag, and I loved that idea. I painted it a couple days after the Supreme Court made marriage legal for everyone, and I felt like the painting itself was a celebration. 

Can you tell that I like making commissions? I do! 

Andrew's Beach

Oil on canvas, 10x10

commission

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THE 101 DOGS PROJECT is progressing, inch by inch, as I work through some of the details. I'm glad to hear that people are interested! 

The full sponsorship price, the one that gets you a painting and cool stuff (or a painting and a donation to a pet-related charity of your choice) is going to be somewhere between $350 and $400. 

There will be lower-priced sponsorships, and payment plans, too, so if you want a painting of your dog, and you want to be a part of the project, I'm going to do everything I can to make that happen. 

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Happy Buyer's Dogs of the Day

Above, Daisy, who Pearlene says is a gentle, loving dog. Doesn't that show in her face? Below, Pearlene with "Does the Night Forget?" in her Ohio home. 

And here's Olive, Pearlene's other dog. I think Olive runs the show! 

Want your pet to be the Dog of the Day? Send a jpg to me at carrieBjacobson@gmail.com

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A Final Thought

"I dream of painting, and then I paint my dream." 

-Vincent Van Gogh

Miscou Mini

Miscou Mini

Miscou Island, New Brunswick, Canada

Oil on canvas, 2x2, $30 with tiny easel for display

On this trip, I've made a series of tiny paintings that I like very much. I started making them just to get the values of the scene down quickly, but I soon found myself charmed by the pieces. They will stand on mini easels I have. They are fun, and really, they are pretty.

Choosing the shape of the canvas is often a challenge for me. I've been tricked many times, for instance, into thinking that a long arm of a beach should go on a long arm of canvas, one that's three times as long as it is high, perhaps. But then, you end up with a skinny stick of sand, a skinny piece of water and a skinny bit of sky - nothing like what really makes the scene.

So the little canvases help me choose the bigger ones. They help me find the problems with the composition, too. And they help me capture the light, quickly.

On Miscou Island

On Miscou Island

New Brunswick

Oil on canvas, 10x20

Call me at 860-442-0246 or email me

if you are interested in buying this painting

Miscou Island Church
By Heather MacLeod
Watercolor on paper, 12x16

Miscou Island is a skinny arm that sticks out of New Brunswick into the Atlantic. It is like the end of the earth. The sky is huge. The sea is huge. The wind blows the grass in waves, and there is no noise but for the world itself, blowing and spinning and turning, and crashing in on the beach.

I painted this abandoned barn, tucked into a curve of a dune. Behind me, Heather painted this church, which one man built alone about 100 years ago, walking to the site every day from his home, miles away.

I hoped, this trip, that I'd find lots of sky, and water, and the thin, round light that comes at the edge of the sea on the best of days - and on this day, in this place, I did. It was a real toss-up, whether to paint the barn or the church, and I am glad we have paintings of both.

Thank you for reading.

Old Farm

Old Farm

Oil on canvas, 10x30

On the road from Bathurst, New Brunswick, to Miscou Island , Heather and I drove by this grouping of farm buildings. It was a sight to take your breath away, and we were lucky enough to find a convenient driveway to pull into, so that we could set up to paint.

Someone lives in one of the houses - you can barely see it in my painting, way in the back - and I think that one or two of the other buildings might still be in use, but mostly, the farm is abandoned, and being beaten and whipped by the weather and the wind. In another 10 years, some of the little buildings will have fallen down. In another 20 years, most of them will have crumbled.

Time and again today, we saw this same thing - once-proud farms slowly eroding. No one is standing by, checkbook in hand, to buy these pieces of land and develop them, though the land is rich and the views spectacular. They are just farms, on a wind-swept narrows, reminders of a life that's just too hard to continue.