"Fish Beach Road", 12x16, oil, paintings of Monhegan Island, the Fish House Monhegan, summer vacations, Maine vacations, island trips, Maryanne Jacobsen fine art

 "Fish Beach Road", 12x16, oil

It's been quite a while since I posted anything new. It's hard sometimes to get back into a routine after you've been out of one for a long time.

I used to post on this blog everyday. And I often even found nice comments afterwards. It was great. That was about ten years ago.

The years fly by before we know it and then we suddenly find ourselves in a whole new era.

In this case, it became the era of social media. Instead of blog posts, artists started just posting photos of their new paintings on Facebook, Instagram, etc. 

While I am just as guilty of doing that, I discovered that it wasn't  very satisfying. I used to really enjoy creating stories about my art within the blog post. It was another level of creativity to write and explain in a blog post the inspiration and process behind the painting. it was fun and  for me, at least, very rewarding.

I often sold my work through my blog posts. And people around the world got to know me a little and began to recognize my work on sites like Daily Painters, when the "painting a day" phenomenon" took root and flourished.

Anyhow, now I'm just mumbling, if it's possible to mumble on a blog.

This is a new painting of a scene that I painted a couple times in the past. It is Fish Beach Road outside the Fish House eatery at the height of summer on Monhegan Island, Maine. My colors are more sober and muted now, and I think my change of palette simply reflects my overall mood anymore. My mood is not buoyant and positive and colorful and quirky like that of the Maryanne of the past.

Life with Covid has changed us all in new and different ways, and many are not positive additions to our fragile little personalities. That being said, I can look back with longing and appreciation for those carefree days when travel was almost effortless (at least compared to today's so called travel), and life seemed to be bubbling with possibilities. Indeed, on Monhegan Island, there were new possibilities lurking behind every corner, every turn in the road, every change of seasons. So I know that if things ever return to the way they were, we will all find ourselves ever so grateful for those freedoms and carefree attitudes of the past that no longer define our lifestyles, but hopefully will surface again.

Well, whether or not, I'll ever travel to lovely Maine again, I can still enjoy my memories of those happy painting trips, and hope and pray there are some new ones still to be found within my lifespan.

Stay well, and feel free to comment about your own experiences!

"Misty Morning, Southwest Harbor", plein air, Claremont Hotel, croquet, Southwest Harbor Maine,

"Misty Morning, Southwest Harbor", 9x12, oil on board,  plein air oil sketch

Last week after the Castine Plein Air Festival, my husband and I decided to spend a few days at Southwest Harbor, Maine. Southwest Harbor is a sleepy but lovely little area about 15 minutes south of Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. We stayed once again at the lovely olf Claremont Hotel, a grand old hotel that helped put Bar Harbor and Maine on the map as a vacation destination in the late 1800's. The hotel is beautifully situated at the mouth of Somes Sound, the east coast's only fjord.

The hotel looks over the Sound to Mt. Desert Island and it is truly a magical expereince to watch the mist lift from the sound and the land mass appear in the early morning hours.

The week we were there was the week of the annual croquet tournament, and the croquet players were practicing with amazing concentration the morning that I set up to paint on the porch. You can see some of them in my photos below:

The painting came together pretty quickly once there was enough light on the porch for me to see what I was painting!

There are beautiful hanging pots of begonias all over the porch and I would highly recommend this lovely traditional old dame of a hotel over any of the Bed and Breakfasts in Bar Harbor. A full breakfast is included and there is even a gent on the premises who will give you some croquet tips!
 Here is a photo of the back of the Claremont on a misty afternoon. I was standing at the boat house when I took the photo, and you can have lunch or drinks there in front of a roaring fire.

For more info about The Claremont, you can just follow the link. To see another painting of the Claremont croquet lawn that I did  a while back, please go here. And if you are interested in purchasing this plein air oil sketch, just send me an email at maryannejacobsen@aol.com.