Prints

Hilltop Tree Line

One morning on a walk in France I found myself headed up this road, looked up to the hilltop before me, and decided to make this drawing.  It was really the variety of the trees lined up on the hill’s ridge that engaged me.  Such a display could appear almost anywhere, of course, but the classic tile roof and the architecture of the building in their midst made it unmistakably France. 

Hints of Spring

My mother and I often walk by this house on our “constitutionals”.  The changes that take place in the vegetation on the yard as Spring unfolds are wondrous.  The colors evolve with amazing speed, so that each time we go by it looks different.  After several years of marveling, I decided to try to get it down on paper.

Hollyhock Homage

The hardy nature of hollyhocks has a great deal of appeal, and I have spent many hours and much effort trying to insure that there is always a supply of them in my garden. The low stone wall is part of my garden as well, as are the chairs. So, this setting provides the perfect invitation to morning coffee or an evening glass of wine.

Iced Out

On a walk one winter’s day I spied this canoe tethered to the base of a tree and found it quite amusing to consider its circumstances.  Mired in snow and a good distance from a shore that led onto thick ice, it seemed more than a bit forlorn. Clearly this giant pea pod will be thrilled at the arrival of ice-out, whenever it finally comes. 

Iconic Isle

All prints in this edition have been sold.

There is perhaps no image more perfectly symbolic of Maine than a spruce-topped granite island, whatever its size. To board a boat and travel to a populated offshore island is an adventure akin to transporting oneself to a foreign land. Setting sail almost anywhere along the coast provides images of smaller islands of varying sizes, some populated by seals or birds; others topped with trees that cling tenaciously to land bereft of soil. Those familiar with a place called Christmas Cove might put this scene there, but it is, in fact, an iconic Maine image that could be in one of many coastal locales.

Iconic Isle II

Thousands of these tiny granite isles populate Maine’s coast. Indeed, the spruce-topped bits of land are truly a part of Maine’s identity and it would be hard to visit coastal Maine without seeing some of them. For my part, I never cease to marvel at the tenacity of trees that manage to establish a foothold and thrive on these rocky perches. And, at times they host greenery suitable for a bit of a graze, if you happen to have a sheep or two in your boat. In that regard, this particular model in the Fox islands neighborhood has extra appeal. With or without room to graze, though, an iconic isle never ceases to have appeal.

In the Sunflower Jungle

One summer my zinnias were quite productive and deserved to be saved in an image. They seemed dwarfed, though, by the jungle of giant sunflower stems among which they had grown.

Island Garden

Although this print began on Hurricane Island, I suspect this island garden could be found on many of the islands off the coast of Maine.  The original sketches for this print were done while I was visiting friends on Hurricane.  As sometimes happens, I feared this print would be a disaster - the drawing went together too easily, it seemed, and when I pulled the first proof I was amazed at how well everything worked.  Clearly it was a picture that was, from the outset, “meant to be”.

Island Garden II

All prints in this edition have been sold.

This image is a composite, a scene of more than one garden I have seen growing on various islands off the Maine coast. It marries a number of things that are visually appealing to me – flowers, islands off the coast, and rock walls – all things that are very easy to find in Maine.

Jack-in-the-Pulpit

As a child when I occasionally found one of these plants in the woods I marveled at it and thought it a magical rarity. I went back to look for them each year, often without success.  When I moved to Maine I transplanted several from a friend’s garden in Massachusetts, but they didn’t take, as wild flowers are picky about soil and location.  One day I discovered a whole host of them in our woods, moved a few, and they took hold in force. Now they are an annual source of delight, far grander and larger than those ones I first discovered years ago.