Mark Island Lighthouse and Opening Pic's

About Mark Island Lighthouse:

Today's lighthouse is Mark Island Lighthouse, or sometimes called Winter Harbor Light, which we saw taking a lighthouse boat tour starting from Bar Harbor, Maine. This lighthouse is under private ownership now and has a history of being home to writers since its de-commission.  Unfortunately, the log books which record much of a lighthouse's history have been lost since the 80's and it is still hoped to have them returned (even a reward is offered!).

From January 1, 1857 to August 1933 Mark Island Lighthouse was manned and its location about a mile away from shore made it a good spot for the keepers, so close to shore.

Here is a funny little story from the lighthousefriends.org website:

"The last keeper of Winter Harbor Lighthouse was Captain Lester “Cap” Leighton. His grandson, Chan Noyes was christened on the way to the island. When Chan was one year old his mother stepped out of the station’s boat at the island, slipped, and “dunked” them both in the water. “That was my christening,” Chan said.

Although Leighton lived in nearby Prospect Harbor until 1970 (when he passed away at the age of 94), he never returned to Mark Island again after leaving in 1933."

There are ghosts in and around the lighthouse; you can read up more at the lighthouse friends' website by clicking here.

Show Opening

My solo show at Sunbury Shores Art Center has come and go (read more here) and I'm still catching up on getting my house up and ready along with the various tasks around the inn such as planting planters of summer flowers for 5 full days, getting one of our guest rooms, gutted, remodelled and finished... The kids are still home-schooling full tilt. Never a dull moment!

I wanted to have a little 'installation' for my opening and as I had worked on figure drawings this winter and spring, I did include some of them in the show as well as my time line was quite tight and I wanted to showcase only 2016 artwork that had not been shown previously (which I did manage except 3 pieces which were not from this year, but fit the show nicely). So, to tie over over from lighthouses to figure drawings, my friend Natasha offered to be the model for this 'installation'.

'Inspiration- human and man-made' was the name of the show. For the installation I wanted a wooden lighthouse-garden-sculpture as the 'man-made' lighthouse part and Natasha, body painted in blues and greens as the 'human' part bridging the two themes. Spears Fishing and Charters' co-owner Ally graciously lent me her business' lighthouse and of course Natasha was symbolizing the ocean, the nature to embrace the lighthouse.

So many people came out, thank you each and everyone! You made this a very special day for me! Thank you, thank you!

I will continue to feature the paintings from the show and soon will head out to a special little paint-away;-)- stay tuned!!

Art Exhibit Opens Today

This evening at 5pm, my art exhibit will open at Sunbury Shores Arts Center in St. Andrews.

I call it Inspiration- human and man-made as featured paintings will be my watercolour lighthouse series and figure sketches in charcoal and pastel. All of the figure sketches and most of the watercolours were painted in 2016, I surely had a busy spring painting this year!

I am excited to see them all hung soon, actually, I will help to hang the art exhibit bright and early.  If you read this in time and live close-by, I'd be thrilled if you would stop by for a look, a nibbly and to say hello.

When I received the call for an invitation to have a solo exhibit in the newly renovated Center, and be sole featured artist at the front gallery space, I was floored! What a great honour! As the offered slot was already in early May, it only left me less than 3 months to create a full show. This is pretty insane. Thank goodness I always love a good challenge.

My dear Markus said, he'd back me up with schooling the kids, so I made a studio in one of our inn's guest suites and basically locked myself in (coming out for a quick lunch and a run to the loo).

What some might not know is that my 'studio' really is what used to be a windowless walk in closet behind our bedroom. It is good storage for all my supplies, has a nice big drafting table to fold and package my greeting cards and other products; plus on the opposite side it has a stainless steel work surface with good lighting to paint bigger oils and acylics. But it is not properly insulated and quite small, so not really an inspiring place to hang out for longer in winter and early spring. I have to say I really enjoyed our suite #101 with its big windows and a balcony to stretch and take in fresh air during breaks. Here is a photo I took after a good cleaning session in my studio-letto this winter.

IN any case, if you can, please do stop by tonight at 5pm at Sunbury Shores or check out the show until May 19th during opening hours.

Have a wonderful weekend, and see you soon!                             Simone

Range Tower at Wood Island Light

Range Tower- Wood Island Light

orig. watercolour, 5x7in approx.

see it in person at Sunbury Shores Art, May 6-20

This little painting of a little lighthouse is one of the range towers near the Wood Island Lighthouse that I painted a few days ago (you can see it by clicking here).

As I am learning about lighthouses, as I paint them, Wikipedia is an informative companion for me. Here is what it states:

Leading lights (also known as range lights in the US) are a pair of light beacons, used in navigation to indicate a safe passage for vessels entering a shallow or dangerous channel; and may also be used for position fixing. At night, the lights are a form of leading line that can be used for safe navigation. The beacons consist of two lights that are separated in distance and elevation, so that when they are aligned, with one above the other, they provide a bearing. Range lights are often illuminated day and night.

In some cases the two beacons are unlighted, in which case they are known as a range in the United States or a transit in the UK. The beacons may be artificial or natural.

Operation of Range Lights:

Two lights are positioned near one another. One, called the front light, is lower than the one behind, which is called the rear light. At night when viewed from a ship, the two lights only become aligned vertically when a vessel is positioned on the correct bearing. If the vessel is on an incorrect course, the lights will not align.

During the day, the range tower lights may not easily be seen and therefore leading lights are often fitted with secondary visual aids, e.g. large red flags with wide black lines running down them. When both red flags and black lines line up, the navigator knows that the vessel is on the correct bearing. The structures are usually painted to make them more prominent.

Some major rivers, such as the Elbe River in Germany, have a series of leading lines. When it is necessary to make a turn, the navigator lines up the next pair of leading lights. This provides guidance from Hamburg to the sea, using successive pairs of leading lights.

Leading lights were used in England as early as 1763 to mark the Port of Liverpool.^[3] The first set of range lights in the United States were privately established by subscription at Newburyport Harbor in Massachusetts in 1788.^[4]

Leading lights are sometimes designed to be movable, allowing their position to be shifted in the event of a change in the safe channel; these include one at Hilton Head, South Carolina, the original Chatham Light, and the Nantucket Beacon, predecessor to the Nantucket Harbor Range.

One of the little Wood Islands Range Tower Lights

Solo Show, a New Series and Egg Rock Light

East Coast Lighthouse #1:

Egg Rock Light (Mount Desert Island, Maine)

orig. watercolour, 21x29 in. approx.

On display May 6-20, Sunbury Shores Arts, St. Andrews, NB, Canada

I haven't posted here in a while, but have been busy 'behind the scenes'. Here is what's been going on:

After my camper-a-day challenge this January, our family took a little vacation to soak up some sun in Mexico (first time ever and it was just a wonderful break). On the third day there, I got a phone call from our local Art Center confirming my spot for a one-woman-show beginning of May... Needless to say, I've been going full-tilt on getting myself set-up and organized!!

My dear hubby has agreed to be the teacher for our kids to free me to paint. I have moved my studio out into one of our guest rooms to have peace and quiet without distractions. It has worked out well so far and I'm making head way.

The next few weeks I'll keep you posted on paintings I'm working on that will be at my exhibit

'Coastal Inspirations- Man Made and Human'

from May 6-20, 2016.

Vernissage Reception is Friday, May 6, 2016 at 6pm

Sunbury Shores Arts and Nature Center, St. Andrews, NB, Canada

Over the winter, I have also put in hours sketching -I will tell you all about it at later posts. It surely has been a busy, art filled winter this year- yey, makes my heart sing!

About today's painting: During trip to Bar Harbor, Maine for our 10th Anniversary we took a 'lighthouse boat tour' and I was clicking away with the camera. This Lighthouse was one of the featured one of that day. Egg Rock Light was constructed 1875, marking the entrance to Frenchman Bay, near Winter Harbor. It is important for the increased seasonal ferry traffic and it stands 40 feet tall. I like the dominant play of light and shade in this painting. I kept the shadows a cold, redish-purple to balance all the blues in sky and water.

With this, I wish you a great start into this week, all the best and 'stay in touch'! Thank you for your interest!

Simone

'Beer Barrel Betty' Shasta Starflyte

'Beer Barrel Betty' Shasta Starflyte

orig. watercolour 5x7 in approx.

more info and purchase: click here 

Today's Campie, 'Beer Barrel Betty', a Shasta Starflyte,  was hard work, but I am done now (yes, and I am done, ha ha). The owner was so sweet and dug in her archived photos to send me more photos from different angles just so I could paint this today! I think it turned out well, I am pleased. It is always hard to paint 'paintings'.

Today I attended a memorial for well known potter and artist, late Tom Smith. He was an inspiration to me and so many in his gentle, kind ways, never boasting his success on national and international level. I remember him sitting every morning at Sweet Harvest Market Cafe and sipping a cup and reading the paper and waving when I walked by. A true inspiration with a most impressive prolific and highest quality art output. One story shared today resonated with me: '...and there I saw him sitting at his desk, pouring over sketches he did 30 years earlier. He told me he wasn't able to create those pieces back then as he didn't know how- he said, he didn't have the craftsmanship developed yet... but now, he was revisiting those sketches, starting to work on his ideas from 30 years earlier.' 

Wow, I feel so much consolation from this as I often feel discouraged when my ideas (in whatever part of my life) don't come to fruition, not yet and at once that is. 

Enough from me, time to wrap it up, it's 2am! Night, night!

Thank you for stopping by, and have a blessed Sunday!                                                                                Simone 

Unser heutiger Camper war eine harte Nuss (und ich bin jetzt Toast, ha, ha). Die Besitzerin war so hilfsbereit und hat in ihrem Fotoarchiv gegruschtelt und mir noch extra Fotos geschickt, sodass ich das heutige Tagesbild malen konnte.

Heute war ich bei der Gedenkfeier fuer den verstorbenen, bekannten Toepfer und Kuenstler Tom Smith. Er war eine inspirierende Persoenlichkeit, nicht nur fuer mich, sondern fuer so viele Menschen, mit seiner liebenswuerdigen, sanftmuetigen und freundlichen Art. 

Er war nie arrogant oder ueberheblich trozt seiner nationalen und internationalen Erfolge. Ich erinnere mich, wie er morgens immer im Sweet Harvest Market gessessen ist und Kaffee getrunken hat und seine Zeitung gelesen. Er winktle immer wenn er mich vorbeilaufen sah.

Eine echte Inspiration ist Tom wenn man das weite Spektrum und die Vielzahl seiner Arbeiten sieht und das auf allerhoechstem Niveau. Eine Geschichte räsonierte mir besonders: '... und da sah ich ihn sitzen, an seinem Arbeitstisch, ueber einem Zeichenblock gebaeugt. Der zeigte Skizzen, die er 30 Jahren zuvor gemacht hatte. Er erzaehlte mir, dass er damals nicht in der Lage war seine Ideen auszufuehren, da er das know-how noch nicht hatte, aber jetzt waere er so weit, er hat seine Skizzen wieder hervorgeholt um da fortzufahren wo er 30 Jahre zuvor abbrechen musste.'

Wow, diese Geschichte gibt mir sehr viel Trost, denn ich fuehle auch sehr oft, in verschiedenen Bereichen meines Lebens, wie mein Koennen und Wissen ungenuegend sind um Frucht zu tragen- wenigstens nicht sofort, nicht auf der Stelle. 

Nun aber genug von mir, Zeit die Bordsteine hochzuklappen- es ist schon nach 2 Uhr nachts! A guat's Naechtle!

Danke fuer's vorbeischauen und ich wuensche dir einen gesegneten Sonntag!  Alles Liebe,                                   Simone

Painting Course and Kids Art

Wharf in Fog, oil on board, 8x10in

This summer was so busy I have not posted the paintings I did during a weekend course I took with Michael Chesley Johnson through Sunbury Shores Arts and Nature Center, here in St. Andrews.
It was a fun week and I learned a lot, thank you Michael for being such a gifted instructor- highly recommend!

Sailing Regatta near Pottery Cove, oil on board

Pottery Cove, incoming Tide; oil on board, 6x8in

My kids have been busy, too, working on their own art projects. As we hung out by the beach most of the summer, we have quite a collection of found treasures at home now. The kids have so much fun assembling them in shadow box collages which are on display at their specially designated wall space at Europa Restaurant. They make the perfect souvenir and people have been just gobbling them up faster than what the kids can collect! Thank you! Each has a special project they are saving for;-) Prices are $30-$60. 

Kids Art Display at Europa Restaurant

Dieser Sommer war so vollgepackt, dass ich komplett vergessen habe diese Bilder hochzuladen von meinem Wochenendkurs mit Michael Chesley Johnson, angeboten von Sunbury Shores Arts and Nature Center hier in St. Andrews. Es hat Spass gemacht und ich lernte viel, danke Michael, du bist ein sehr geduldiger und talentierter Lehrer und Kuenstler!

Meine Kinder sind auch kreativ und arbeiten an ihren eigenen Kunstprojekten. Weil wir sehr viel Zeit am Strand verbringen, haben wir ein Sammelsurium an allerlei Schätzen die wir Meer gefunden haben. Meine drei Kuenstler haben richtig viel Spass, sie nun in tiefen Rahmen auszustellen. Sie haben sogar ihre eigene Wand im Restaurant zum ausstellen! Diese Collagen sind das perfekte Souvenir und die Leute schnappen sie weg schneller wie die Kinder sie machen koennen! Danke!
Jedes Kind hat einen speziellen Wunsch auf den sie hinsparen;-) Preise ca. 30$-60$ pro Collage.

upcoming Art Show Feb 10th, 2012

a night at the theatre

 oil/acrylic on canvas 

24x30in each

It has been a long time since my last blog, but i have been painting!
yesterday i got an email from Sunbury Shores Director Jamie Steel
that my art show will go up next friday,
february 10th, 2012 with
an opening reception from 5-6.30pm.
i hope you can stop by and see what i've been up to lately;-)
here is a glimpse of some of the paintings on display...
as you can see we're gettin' abstract here, but it's so much fun!
i feel like freeing myself from the safety net of realism and embracing
my inner voice. i still enjoy traditional painting especially plein air painting
outdoors, but i never really did thrive on painting from photographs..
so, i guess it was a matter of time for this change in painting style to evolve.
Here on the coast it is wintery, yes, but i hope the temperatures will climb
with the longer daytime hours. In the past months my LORD has blessed me with many wonderful
new friendships, spiritual growth and tons of happiness from within!
may he touch you today and bless you and yours!
Thank you for stopping by;-) Simone

'La Musica' Series'

oil on canvas 30x40in- ca. 75cmx100cm 

 'La Musica' Series'

Acrylic on Canvas

24x30in approx.

Jetzt habe ich schon ewig nicht mehr ge-blogged, obwohl ich einiges gemalt habe.
und gestern habe ich eine email von Sunbury Shores' Direktor Jamie Steel bekommen,
dass meine Kunstausstellung am nächsten 
Freitag, den 10. Februar eröffnet! 
Ich hoffe Du kannst vorbeischauen- 
Vernissage ist Freitag, von 17-18.30Uhr.
Hier ist ein kleiner Auszug, was ausgestellt wird! 
Wie Ihr sehen koennt wirds Abstrakt hier, weil's soo viel Spass macht!
Ich fuehle, wie ich mich weiterentwickle und das Sicherheitsnetz des Realismus
hinter mir lasse um zu malen was ich in mir drin fuehle.
Traditionelles malen macht mir immer noch Spass, besonders Plein Air, draussen im Sommer,
aber ich muss gestehen, dass ich nie wirklich superviel Spass hatte von Fotos zu malen,
drum kommt meine Entwicklung ins Abstrakte wirklich nicht als Ueberraschung.
Hier an der Kueste ist es noch winterig und kalt, aber ich hoffe dass mit den laengeren 
Tagen auch der Winter bald ins Abseits gedraengt wird.
In den letzten Monaten hat mich mein Gott gesegnet mit neuen Freundschaften, 
wachsender Liebe zu Ihm und seinem Wort, und innerer Zufriedenheit.  
Moege Er auch dich und die deinen heute segnen.
Vielen Dank fuers Vorbeischaun;-) Simone

La Musica Series- Diptych

acrylic on canvas

24x9in

first prize at 'art of food' competition

St. Andrews Sunbury Shores Arts and Nature Center, advertised a juried art competition with the theme: the art of food.
i loved the theme, but knew it would be hard to participate, as most of my 'food' paintings were sold over the summer months and starting new ones might be tricky with a newborn, two older children and our restaurant still going 7 days a week...
so i tried, i had this idea to paint a painting to be hung in my husbands restaurant kitchen, something bright and cheery, depicting the work in a restaurant...
i started this painting after having Mathias, my third child, a little over a month ago.
at the award night, i barely made it to he opening in time, but felt very honoured and joyous to be awarded first prize- the Cooke Aquaculture Award! Thank You!

'Our love of food- serving YOU'- acrylic on canvas, 24x40in, 60x100cm

St. Andrews Sunbury Shores Center fuer Kunst schrieb einen Kunstwettbewerb aus mit dem Thema 'the art of food'. Ein Motto ganz nach meinem Geschmack, aber ich wusste dass es nicht leicht sein wuerde mitzumachen, da die meisten meiner 'food' bilder ueber die Sommermonate verkauft wurden und neue Bilder anzufangen- mit einem Neugeborenen, zwei weiteren Kindern und unserem Restaurant noch 7 Tage/ Woche geoeffnet- wuerde eine echte Herausforderung darstellen... ich versuchte es, hatte ich doch eine Idee ein Bild zu malen fuer die Restaurant Kueche meines Mannes, es sollte etwas buntes, froehliches sein, das die Arbeit in einem Restaurant darstellt... so fing ich also das Bild an, nachdem unser Mathias geboren war, unser drittes Kind, vor etwas mehr als einem Monat. Um so mehr habe ich mich gefreut und geehrt gefuehlt den ersten Preis ueberreicht zu bekommen- den 'Cooke Aquaculture Award'! Vielen Dank!