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Summer 2010 NewsletterThanks for reading my first online newsletter; I've decided to move to an image and text based system that has more flexibility than email alone. Older newsletters are not archived, but new ones will be. Images have descriptions if you mouse over them and all except the first one will open in a larger window if clicked.
Past couple weeks in Maine.
I'm back in Warsaw now after having spent some of June and most of July at my summer studio in Maine. The weather was a perfect combination of fog, rain, sun, and all types of cloudy. This trip was not a scheduled working trip - more on that later. However, I did get quite a bit of work done in the latter part of my stay, but unfortunately this didn't include a lot of finished painting. This year I tried to work close to and within Brooksville, Stonington, and Bar Harbor; I was able to get some great digital photos and even found time to paint a couple small paintings and a 16x20 that turned out solidly. To the left is a new picture of the studio building; my studio is the small building behind the larger building; you can see the roof and window there. My mom uses the larger building (in front) as her office with the lower level devoted to washing facilities for the Oakland House. Its a magnificent creative space with great lighting.
  My first focus was on some lilly compositions at Ames Pond on Deer Island just east of Stonington. We'll see some small white and pink water lilly paintings very soon. I didn't see the beavers or turtles that are normally there this year, but plenty of frogs, heron, and water insects. Mosquitoes were not bad, but during the day you could pretty much count on at least one deer fly randomly crashing into your hair. My commute to Stonington took me over the Deer Island bridge and I can report that they are still hard at work on it and I talked to a number of the workers taking part in the repair. They all reported working long hours, but promised that the bridge would be done this fall. The causeway between the two Deer Islands was another subject that I spent some time working with and also found time to observe the birds and people while waiting for the right tide, lighting, and composition to develop. One nice bonus with the causeway area is the 360 degree view of sunrises and sunsets. Compositions from the nice beaches in this area take quite a bit of creativity to discover, but I'm looking forward to the challenge later this year.
 
 The Brooklin Boat Yard / Landing area had quite a few nice wood boats which is typical for any year. During the day the ship builders were hard at work repairing and building, but in the early evening hours the low sun creates some great warm light to work with. Predictably this year is yet another that I intended to paint that large gramble-style roof building at the head of the road next to the boat yard, but was unable to find the right lighting and angle; next time I'll get up at 4 in the morning and wait on-site for the best light forms to be revealed. I could probably make up something, but I'm not sure what shadows the land forms from the east would make and where; that'll give me something to do next year.
 My mom and I had the chance to meet with another Maine artist and investigate some of the hidden parts of Mt. Desert Isle. The picture to the right here is facing northeast standing just south of Compass Harbor, which is a little south of Bar Harbor, Maine. The Thrumcap is the little island in the background there with the Schoodic Peninsula behind. This part of Mt. Desert Island used to have many summer residences that burned down during the 1947 fire.
  I think I may have recieved some odd looks and perhaps a scowl, but I took some great stock pictures of assorted water and sand activities with people of all ages at Sand Beach in Acadia Park. Three different days I planned to work there, but actually went a forth because of some interesting fog that was working its way through Bar Harbor. All except for 1 day the water was its typical unreal blueish green color. Normally water is a function of the sky, but there is a very large green shift to the clear salt water that has a light colored substrate - like Sand Beach. I'm looking forward to painting these scenes again and representing people forms.
 Just one day I spent outside of the 3 aforementioned places; Schoodic was my bonus study. I've done considerable work in and around the area in years past, but this summer I just did the one day on the peninsula and was blessed with cool summer coastal fog. The tide was high and the fog only found its way to the southern parts of the peninsula. It was good to see that the park was busy with tourist and a few others like me interested in viewing the perfect composition or getting a chance at the right combination of hues and forms. There are millions of rock paintings that an artist could do from here, but I'm working on some more complex relationships and won't have time for rock compositions right away although some of that surf looks challenging.
I made a couple friends this summer and learned a couple things. I found out that horses can't catch carrots, but like you if you feed them carrots, crabs will play dead, tree frogs should not be allowed inside, bats eat insects that humans attract, and the neighborhood cats in Stonington are very friendly, but need baths.
 This year in Stonington I tried finding compositions that made artistic sense, but were not on a path. I got some, but less than I wanted. I also didn't get any great morning light as the weather in downtown Stonington is often quite different than just a mile or two north. Multiple times I found myself there, early in the morning, and with bad light. On those days I stopped at the Black Cove Grocery and loaded up on sunflower seeds (artist fodder) and cola beverages. During the days and evenings the light was more predictable and good.
Success at The Argosy GalleryI have a shrinking group of Maine oil paintings at the Argosy gallery and I'm working hard to refill their supply of original Whiteheads. The Gallery has and will continue getting a mix of 11x14 and 6x8 paintings and occasionally something larger. I'm having a hard time keeping up with sales while trying to have a nice body of work that is available on my site here as well-> The Whitehead Gallery. For the future I plan on having Bar Harbor and Mt. Desert Island paintings to be sold at The Argosy Gallery and I'll do the rest through my website or ebay. I'm proud to say that at this point in my career things are really starting to work into place and I'd like to thank all of my customers for making this possible. I'll continue refining my skills and try to keep up with demand while keeping prices down. In 2011 I'm planning on doing competitions and juried events again; this is something I haven't done since 2006.
The reason for my early trip to Maine. My step-father, Jim Littlefield, passed away this June after an extended and bravely fought battle against multiple myeloma. The reason for me being in Maine so early in the season was to be with Jim during his final days and to share time with my mom afterwards. Quite frankly my artistic career would not be what it is today without Jim's assistance and help early in this decade. Jim welcomed me in to Maine and the Oakland House with open arms and encouragement every summer. Hopefully Jim's warmth and cleverness will find its way into my future work as I'll always be remembering him.
I'm always interested in your stories and adventures in Maine or elsewhere so please keep in touch.
- Bryan S. Whitehead (artist and webmaster)
Still reading or looking for something to do? Here is a puzzle you can put together of one of my favorite Maine paintings.
provided by flash-gear.com
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