Road to Bernard II (pastel on paper, 2011)

I did a small pastel drawing of this subject on location while in Southwest Harbor back in late June. I recently did this bigger version here in my studio and I've recently begun a large painting based on the same subject.

Presque Isle from Quoggy Joe North Peak (pastel on paper, 2011)

(Private Collection)
This pastel drawing was also done for the Paint Presque Isle event at the end of August (see previous post). Quoggy Joe is a twin peaked mountain in Aroostook State Park. There are trails to both the north and south peaks from the parking lot, as well a trail that runs across the top, connecting both peaks, I hiked up the north peak trail with pastel gear and made this drawing looking out north towards the city of Presque Isle with the road leading into the park visible in the lower right corner. It was a bit of a challenge hiking up with all of my gear, but it was certainly more difficult coming back down while trying to protect the drawing from getting scratched by the multitude of branches that line the trail on both sides.

Houses on Chapman Street (oil on canvas, 2011)

(Private Collection)
This was painted for the annual "Paint Presque Isle" event sponsored by the Aroostook Partners for the Arts. Artists create work in the city of Presque isle during the day and then the work is auctioned off in the evening to raise money for arts programs in local schools. I parked my car behind Maine Street, on the river side, and wandered around until I found this row of houses on Chapman Street, just behind the courthouse. At one point about half way throught the painting process, I gust of wind knocked my easel over and the painting landed face down in the gravel on the side of the road and I had to scrape the whole thing down and start over, which actually turned out to be a good thing as I think that having to repaint it improved the painting.