My husband and I went to Maine last week to attend the Boothby family’s 100th reunion. We stayed in Cornish, Maine, a tiny township in what they call southern Maine. The reunion was in the next town over, called Limington.
To keep the character of Cornish Township authentic, they have some zoning laws that prevent new-style buildings
from being built in the center of town. The center of town was only about 3 blocks long so there was a lot of room to build anything else out further down the road, including hardware stores and a restaurant called “Phat Boys”. (and yes, they were!)
We were particularly impressed with this antique store, the loving detail that showed in the way it was constructed, finished and then cared for. We bought a Pennsylvania Barn Star there, you can just barely see them on each side of the entrance of the building.
We stayed at a place called the Cornish Inn. It’s the building on the right with the red roof. In the center house, I saw a tiny elderly lady come out and check her mail. I loved her pink door which nicely offset the copper (green) roof and white house. I did not finish this little painting because it began to rain. A “rare” Summer Northeaster blew in, and eventually it poured.
As for the Boothbys, one of the first houses built in the are belonged to a Boothby but it burned down many years ago. The street is still named Boothby road.
Painting “Plein Aire” means I was outside with my little pad sketching and painting.
Archive for the ‘landscapes’ Category
Cornish, Maine – plein aire
Tuesday, August 24th, 2010
Tour of downtown Seattle – the rest of the story
Saturday, August 7th, 2010
My roving photographer Donald Boothby works downtown where it is easy to encounter fellow businessmen, tourists and homeless people. The curious juxtaposition of this Duck boat filled with smiling tourists looking unseeing across this little plaza where a woman is warming herself in the sun really struck me.
By the big barn
Wednesday, July 28th, 2010
From the number of dilapidated huge barns that we see on our bike rides, western Washington state used to be a big dairy producer. Every one of these barns shows pride, industry and independence to me. Some of them are unique.
This is another painting based on my husband’s collection of photographs. We rode by this barn on our tandem and had to stop to gaze at it. I confess that it is actually more decrepit in person than it appears here.
A log cabin past its prime
Tuesday, July 27th, 2010
Bicycling is one of our hobbies, we cover a lot of miles on country roads at a leisurely pace. Unlike traveling in a car, we are exposed to the elements, the smells and the sights that you might miss at high speed. On a bike it is easy to stop to pick some flowers, or feed grass to a friendly horse. Near Winthrop, Washington, we found this cabin in a field. It was important to take a photo of it, because we knew that it would eventually collapse. Many of the barns and buildings that my husband has captured with his camera are now gone. The reference for this one was one of his photos.
Giuseppina – incredible lady
Friday, July 16th, 2010
When my grandmother, Lucy Melino Fressola died, she left each of her descendants; children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren some money. With part of mine, I took my entire family to Italy; my husband, my two young adult sons, and I. We decided that it was about time to go visit my grandmother’s home town, Sant’Agata di Puglia, one of many picturesque hilltop towns in Southern Italy.
There was one little lady who still lived there that remembered my grandmother, her name was Giuseppina. She was short and spry with twinkly eyes. She welcomed us to her town with smiles and told us how she was the oldest of 8 children and how they had absolutely nothing. She was not able to go to school because she had to work instead and never learned to read. She eventually married my grandmother’s cousin, Saverio Fabbiano. They bought a house with the sweat off their backs and raised their children in this pristine little village. She radiated joy as she reminisced my grandmother’s last visit. It seems that the day my grandmother arrived, Giuseppina’s daughter had a baby. I later met that baby, a woman close to my age.
There was nowhere to park our car near her home or near our hotel, so this 80 something year old woman led us around on foot, we had to work to keep up with her. Every one of us has a story about our time in Sant’Agata di Puglia, but each of us remembers this smiling old woman who shared her town with us.
Recipe for a bookmark
Sunday, July 11th, 2010Last winter I made a bunch of bookmarks and they were so popular, there’s only 1 left in the house. Today I went to Susie Short’s demo for painting negative flowers for some inspiration. She was focusing on Irises, so I thought I would too. Here’s my finished painting:
Then I cut it into handy bookmark sized pieces:
The first three people that want one and leave a comment here can have their own original handpainted book mark. Leave a comment and I’ll contact you via email for your address. Thanks everyone for responding. I’ll have more bookmarks available at a later date.
A tiny glimpse of the woods
Friday, July 9th, 2010
On Monday last, we had a holiday. My husband and I decided to hike to Annette Lake and back, a 7.5 mile hike. Neither of us has done any hiking for years but although it was a rather ambitious outing, we had a great time. I found it rather amusing that while we were walking through the mists, the rest of the USA was roasting. One of the more beautiful vistas I saw on this hike was the misty shadows of distant trees covered by the mid day fog shrouding part of the mountain. This painting measures 2.5″ x 3.5″.
Liberty Bell – Mazama out and back bike ride
Monday, July 5th, 2010
Someone heading north and east on Highway 20 on their way to Twisp might never see this incredible spectacle. On the other hand, someone riding a bicycle slowly up this mountain westbound from Twisp cannot fail to see it. It vaults higher than it seems it should, and the shape is so much like a castle with ramparts that it seems almost man-made. but men don’t make things on this scale. What men do (and women too) is try to scale formations like this. This popular bike route starts at Marblemount and goes over both Rainy pass and Washington Pass (the one right past this rock formation. then after this summit, there is a screaming descent down to the Mazama Country Inn, where good food is served and comfy beds await. In the morning, after a delicious and large breakfast, the mountains await and the intrepid cyclists must now climb back out over those same mountain passes.
First Georgetown – Seattle Farmer’s Market
Monday, June 7th, 2010
After weeks and weeks of dreary grey, Saturday dawned with a brilliant light, and the air was sweet. I had already missed the Columbia City Farmer’s market 3 weeks in a row, because every Wednesday in May was rainy and I just didn’t feel like riding my bike down there to walk around in the rain. So I woke up with a plan. I was going to be one of the first people in Seattle to attend the first farmer’s market ever – in the Georgetown Neighborhood.
I got there a few minutes after 10 in the morning and the new location was full of booths and cars were clogging the streets. Since I was on my bike I didn’t have to deal with the parking lot, with attendants waving flags around at the crowds in an effort at maintaining order.
There were a lot of wonderful happenings there that day, and every single person out there was happily taking in the fresh bright sunlight and fresh air. One particular booth, from Full Circle Farms caught my eye. This lovely young vendor was surrounded by her delicate spring vegetables and I had to paint her.
One last glance at Autumn Colors
Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
The season of Autumn has flown by us, the trees seemed to hold their leaves forever, and they were resplendent. One day this week I saw the wind come up and I knew, these leaves were destined to finally fall. And this is pretty much like what it looked like from my window.
