Machias, Maine
Machais, Maine was having a Blueberry Festival while we were in town.
While in Maine we read an article in the Wall Street Journal about the poverty in Maine.
Pleasant River RV Park, Addison, Maine - The owner of this campground's family has lived in Addison for five generations. He has many wonderful stories including about how they arrived. The tossed the animals overboard and everyone swam to shore. I am grateful to our friend, Campskunk, who recommended this campground to us
Arcadia National Park - Maine
Bar Harbor, Maine
Mexico, Maine
Sunny River, Maine
Rusty Cobweb - Antiques in Maine
Portland, Maine - a hot spell
These simple banners dressed up the town - wish my home town would do the same
Portland Museum of Art
Mary Cassatt - After spending formative years as part of the Impressionist coterie, Cassat experimented with a variety of media and stylistic approaches in her mature career. A favorite and recurring theme of her work was the intimacy between mothers and their children. She used a regular cast of favorite models in these experiments: this child, Helen, appears in pastels, prints and oils, ranging from loose sketches, as here to highly finished works of art.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir - While Renoir's favorite subject of the late 1860's and early 1870's - men and women represented together during an intimate moment - was popular magazine illustrations at the time, it was uncommon in contemporary salon painting. It characterizes the Impressionists' turn away from adademically ponderous themes in favor of everyday subjects featuring the activities of the middle class.
Paul Gauguin - "Clovis in a hero." said Gauguin about the sitter, his favorite son, who was approaching his seventh birthday at the time of this portrait was painted. The artist recently moved to Paris after a sojourn in Copenhagen with his wife, Mette's family. He brought Clovis with him and together the two lived a frugal life on Rue Cail while Gauguin struggles to gain momentum in his artistic career. His letter to Mette reveal their Spartan existence: When we sit down together at the table in the evening with a crust of bread and a relish, (Clovis) forgot how greedy he used to be: he says nothing, asks for nothing, not even to play and goes to bed quietly." Despite the hardships, in this portrait Gauguin endowed his son with a monumental presence."
N.C. Wyeth - As a student illustrator of Howard Pyle, N.C. Wyeth heeded his teacher's advice to "live in the picture." Wyeth traveled to the West in 1904 and his experiences living among farmers and cattlemen in Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico informed his art for decades.
Wyeth was the foremost American illustrator of the first half of the 20th century, as well as the patriach of a famous family of artists (including son Andrew and grandson Jamie). His realistic and engaging pictures made for reproduction in books and magazines created iconic images of such popular characters as Buffalo Bill.
Wyeth was the foremost American illustrator of the first half of the 20th century, as well as the patriach of a famous family of artists (including son Andrew and grandson Jamie). His realistic and engaging pictures made for reproduction in books and magazines created iconic images of such popular characters as Buffalo Bill.
Harry Wilson Watrous - When this painting of mixed-race family was first exhibited in 1914, it sparked public debate over the role of racial heritage in determining an individual's place in modern American society. Its provocative title refers to the commonly accepted "one-drop rule," which categorized a "negro" any person who parentage was even partly African American. The portrait of Lincoln hanging on the wall, coupled with the pervasive sense of tension among the figures, suggested that for this family the lost president's promise of racially equally has not yet been fulfilled.
Edwin Lord Weeks - With it's vivid color and carefully articulated details, this scene capture the exotic pageantry of a royal procession in the 17th-century India. The emperor Shah Jehan I, seated in the litter atop an elephant, and his retinue ride past one of his architectural masterpieces, Delhi's Great Mosque, built in 1658. Islamic art and the architecture thrived in India under the Muslim Mughal (or Mogul) dynasty: Jehan also commissioned the Taj Mahal in Agra.
An intrepid globe trotter, Boston-born artist Edwin Lord Weeks regularly used sketches and photographs made on his travels - including several trips to India - to endow his Orientalist pictures with a sense of closely observed authenticity.
An intrepid globe trotter, Boston-born artist Edwin Lord Weeks regularly used sketches and photographs made on his travels - including several trips to India - to endow his Orientalist pictures with a sense of closely observed authenticity.
Thomas Moran - Although Moran is best known for his dramatic, large-scale views of the American West, he executed a series of poetic themes in the last quarter of the 19th century. This painting is based upon the poem of the same name by Alfred Lord Tennyson. who in turn took the theme from Homer's ancient Greek epic The Odyssey. As the story goes, a storm strands Ulysses and his men on an island where they are temporarily lulled into idleness by the narcotic effect of the plants - lotuses - eaten by the natives. Here, however, Moran subordinates the human narrative to the fantastical setting of the firey skies and the craggy rock formations.
I always find this type of grouping difficult to view the individual pieces. The ones up high are extremely difficult to view.
Marguerite Thompson Zorach - The picturesque village of Les Baux in Southern France captured the eye of the young Marguerite Thompson (later Zorach) as she traveled through Europe in 1910. This painting depicts the area's unique terrain in a harmony of expressive colors and abstracted shapes. Her use of the navy blue outlines to define the trees, rocks and the road evokes cloisonne enamelwork and is a classic example of her burgeoning style described at "cloisonnisme."
Portland's Artistic Community
Although the sculptures that you see here were created in Rome and inspired by the classical marbles of that city, they are also the products of the 19th-century Portland's strong artistic community. Born and raised in Maine, sculptors Benjamin Paul Akers and Franklin B. Simmons rose to fame as the city of Portland and its residents increasingly championed their work, as well as that of their talented fellow artist. Akers's The Dead Pearl Diver ((1858), the first exhibited in Portland in 1859, was the very first work of art to be acquired by the Portland Museum of Art (then the Portland Society of Art), Simmons, in turn was selected to create public sculpture in Portland's Monument and Longfellow Squares.
Both artist spent time studying and working in Italy, however, they neither forgot nor were they forgotten by the city of Portland. Simmons left the entire contents of his studio, including a version of his statue of Ulysses S. Grant created for the U.S. Capitol to the City, which in turn donated them to the Museum. The Museum was presented with the opportunity to purchase The Dead pearl Diver, many of Portland's most prominent citizens helped by contributing funds.
Although the sculptures that you see here were created in Rome and inspired by the classical marbles of that city, they are also the products of the 19th-century Portland's strong artistic community. Born and raised in Maine, sculptors Benjamin Paul Akers and Franklin B. Simmons rose to fame as the city of Portland and its residents increasingly championed their work, as well as that of their talented fellow artist. Akers's The Dead Pearl Diver ((1858), the first exhibited in Portland in 1859, was the very first work of art to be acquired by the Portland Museum of Art (then the Portland Society of Art), Simmons, in turn was selected to create public sculpture in Portland's Monument and Longfellow Squares.
Both artist spent time studying and working in Italy, however, they neither forgot nor were they forgotten by the city of Portland. Simmons left the entire contents of his studio, including a version of his statue of Ulysses S. Grant created for the U.S. Capitol to the City, which in turn donated them to the Museum. The Museum was presented with the opportunity to purchase The Dead pearl Diver, many of Portland's most prominent citizens helped by contributing funds.
Wassamki Campground - Portland, Maine -
We started out camping in a free sunny parking lot in downtown Portland, however, when we awoke one morning and it was already 82 degrees at 9:30 we changed our plans to a cool shady spot by the lake where we could use our air conditioning when needed.
We started out camping in a free sunny parking lot in downtown Portland, however, when we awoke one morning and it was already 82 degrees at 9:30 we changed our plans to a cool shady spot by the lake where we could use our air conditioning when needed.