The opening reception for Tapestry | THE NEW WAVE was a great success! Over 150 people joined us to celebrate the opening of the largest tapestry exhibition ever held in the state of Maine. We were pleased to have 10 of the 11 weavers in attendance at the opening.
The exhibition runs until August 31. Open Tues-Sat, 11 am to 4 pm.
Photography by Sam Betts
For Linekin Bay Resort’s 100-Year Anniversary, Brad created a painting especially for their celebration. His goal with this painting was to capture the spirit of this classic Maine family resort: summer days playing games on the lawn, swimming in the pool, sailing in the bay or simply relaxing on the deck. Linekin Bay Resort has welcomed families for 100 years and still embodies the historic charm of old. If you have not visited, we highly recommend a “Linekin Crush” cocktail and lunch at the Deck Bar & Grill!
There is still time to visit the Maine Stone Symposium and see sculptors in action!
The Maine Stone Symposium is being held outdoors on the public Boothbay Common in Boothbay, Maine. With 3 of Down East Gallery's sculptors participating this year, we are pleased to be sponsors of this event.
The Maine Stone Symposium is a 9-day public live carving demonstration by 9 notable Maine stone sculptors and international guests from Japan and Canada. Public visiting hours are 10 to 4 daily and the symposium is free and open to all ages. If you have not been to a symposium before, this is a must-see event... in just over one week, the sculptors craft beautiful forms of art from pieces of raw stone, it is truly fascinating to watch these sculptures come to life!
Works of art created at the Symposium will be sold at the Boothbay Region Land Trust's Points of View Art Auction at Oak Point Farm on August 8. Tickets for the quadrennial art auction can be purchased from the Boothbay Region Land Trust at bbrlt.org.
Best wishes to Down East Gallery sculptors Andreas von Huene, Dick Alden and Dan Ucci and to all participating artists - we look forward to seeing your sculptures!
“Quiet Cove off Oak Point”, an 11x14 painting by Brad Betts, will be available for purchase at the Points of View Art Auction to benefit the Boothbay Region Land Trust on August 8, 2019 from 5-9 pm. The auction will be held at the beautiful Oak Point Farm in Boothbay Harbor and this year’s line-up of art is one of the best - hope to see you there!
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/points-of-view-art-auction-tickets-59176076237
Painted especially for this event, "Quiet Cove off Oak Point" is intended to evoke the moment of peace you find on Maine's waters, coves and inlets, when the boats are still on their moorings and there is no sound other than the water lapping on the shore, the sound of leaves blowing in the breeze and the occasional bird call. It celebrates Maine's natural beauty while recognizing our place within it.
When Brad and Danielle decided to relocate to the Boothbay Region over 12 years ago, the trails and preserves of the Boothbay Region Land Trust were an important part of that decision. They have supported all of the quadrennial art auctions with a painting donation since moving to the region, and are always pleased to support the Boothbay Region Land Trust.
We are very excited to have received the juried tapestry selections by curators Priscilla May Alden and Barbara Burns. Featuring 30+ tapestries by New England’s finest weavers, this invitational event will kick-off on August 6 with an opening reception on Friday August 9 from 5 to 7 pm. This is a wonderful opportunity to meet the artists and learn more about the ancient, traditional and contemporary methods of weaving.
The tapestries will be displayed against the warm backdrop of Down East Gallery’s 1904 post and beam barn. To purchase a tapestry, please visit or contact the gallery.
An evening at the beautiful Beach Rose Cottage on Ocean Point. Brad and Ben both painted the flower gardens.
Plein air paintings from a morning walk on Ocean Point. Brad and Ben both painted Ram Island Light from the rocks off Three Trees.
Paintbrushes and paints on the rocks
Brad’s plein air painting “Ram Island Light”
Ben painting en plein air
The weather has warmed on Ocean Point. Our brisk morning walks are now slower paced as we stop to enjoy the season’s first beach roses, chat with summer visitors, or paint a surf study to capture the turquoise color of a breaking wave on an overcast day.
After 3 days in Rome, we headed north for a week in Val d’Orcia, a UNESCO World Heritage site in southern Tuscany.
San Quirico d’Orcia, as viewed from one of the many hiking paths leading out from the town to the neighboring villages.
We stayed in a circa 700 stone house just outside the walls of the village of San Quirico d’Orcia.
Our Holiday Home for the week.
Flowers were blooming everywhere!
A walk through the narrow winding streets of San Quirico d’Orcia.
From San Quirico, you can easily drive to many well-known towns in the Val d’Orcia, including Montalcino, Montepulciano, and Pienza. One of favorite days was spent hiking from town to town, starting in San Quirico and taking paths through the rolling grain fields, past long-abandoned stone structures, to finally hike up to the hill town of Pienza.
We were very fortunate to have a private tour and wine tasting at Altesino, a vineyard and winery in Montalcino that makes, among other incredibly delicious wines, the world-renowned Brunello di Montalcino.
One of several vineyards at Altesino.
Oak barrels at the vineyard.
We could not visit Tuscany without at least one day on the coast. We spent the afternoon walking the beach and then enjoyed dinner in the hill town of Porto Santo Stefano.
One day, we do hope to return to the vast and far-reaching vistas of the Val d’Orcia!
We were so fortunate to have the opportunity to travel to Italy this month! We spent 3 days in Rome and fell in love with its exquisite, ancient beauty.
We stayed in Trastevere, a family neighborhood southwest of the Tiber River and the historical center of Rome. We loved this neighborhood, with its daily farmer’s market outside our door. When the market cleared in the afternoons, the local children would flock to the park and begin playing soccer and other outdoor games until evening.
Our AirBnB apartment was in a square complex with a courtyard in the middle. We would see women hanging their laundry in the evening after work, and often heard Italian voices rising up to our room at night.
Trastevere has narrow streets and colorful buildings, filled with greenery, ancient churches and landmarks, and numerous restaurants. It is not, however, all tourist-driven and there are many signs of Roman life.
At night, the town streets are filled with walkers and entertainers, and young people drinking and socializing in the streets.
We walked 8-10 miles a day and saw nearly all of the historic Rome center. On our last day, we bought a bottle of wine and settled down in a park to soak in the birds, green grass and sunshine.
We have been busy framing the new back barn, located behind (and attached to) our 1904 post and beam barn. We are rebuilding the barn to the same proportions while shifting the gable to align with the center of the post and beam bents and adding large windows to take in the big sky views. Once complete, we will remove the old barn boards between the two barns so we can finally use back barn as a stage for performances!
Framing in the pouring rain of April.
Framing in the big blue sky.
On March 19, we said goodbye to the back barn. Lightly framed and caving in, the barn was leaking and putting our 1904 post and beam barn at risk. Construction begins in April for the new and improved back barn! Thanks to Back Meadow Farms for their expert (and fast!) demolition work.
We had the pleasure of attending an art residency in February 2019 at the Dorland Mountain Arts Colony in Temecula California. Dorland is located on a 340-acre nature preserve in the mountains of Riverside County, 60 miles north of San Diego and 100 miles south of LA.
With blue skies and weather in the 60s, we spent each day traveling to a state park or ecological reserve for hiking and painting en plein air before heading back to our residency cabin to watch the sunset. While much of California is, as expected, sprawling with development, we found an abundance of public lands that preserved the state’s raw and natural beauty.
Wild Horse Peak, 11x14 en plein air oil painting by Brad Betts. Painted from Sunset Point at Dorland Mountain Arts Colony.
Santa Rosa Ecological Reserve, 11x14 en plein air oil painting by Brad Betts
We enjoyed hiking the 8,300 acres of Santa Rosa so much, we went back a second day to explore the trails leading to the top of Monument Hill, which had panoramic views of grasslands, rolling hills and distant snow-capped mountains as far as the eye could see .
Monument Hill, 11x14 en plein air oil painting by Brad Betts
View from Horton Cottage, 8x10 en plein air oil painting by Brad Betts
Reading in the Grove, 11x14 en plein air oil painting by Brad Betts.
Watercolor study of a mountain range by Brad Betts, painted from the front porch of Horton Cottage at Dorland Mountain Arts Colony.
Cactus, 6x8 oil painting by Brad Betts. This was a fun study as four artists painted this cactus at the same time, resulting in four unique paintings of one subject in varying and diverse styles.
Poppies on Dripping Spring Trail, 11x14 en plein air oil painting by Brad Betts
On our last day, we hiked the trail to Wild Horse Peak in the Agua Tibia Wilderness. At the end of the hike, we rock-hopped across a stream and as we started heading to the car we realized we were being passed by butterflies, dozens at a time. We sat down on the stream bank for over an hour as hundreds of Painted Lady butterflies flew by, on their journey from Mexico to the north. An amazing moment at the end of an incredibly inspiring trip, we hope to return to Dorland in the future for another nature-inspired artistic retreat.
Marsh Study by Brad Betts. Music excerpt from the song “Groceries” by Ben Betts, @benbettsmusic from the album REVELING.
Painting by Brad Betts | Music by Ben Betts To hear the original song "Groceries" and the entire album REVELING by Ben Betts, visit: https://www.downeastgallery.com/music
Storm Surf on Ocean Point is a 30” x 40” commission. The clients requested a painting of surf that was powerful yet reflective of the beauty of Ocean Point. I did 6 plein air and studio studies of the surf and rocks at one requested location until I found the composition I was looking for.
In the final painting, I attempted to capture the power of the incoming surf: distant white caps, a translucent wave just beginning to break, another curled and crashing against the rocks. To achieve the beauty, I focused on the time just after a storm, when the sea is still churning rough and wild but the skies are parting and peaks of sun are breaking through the clouds and lighting up the rocks and water in a moment of promise. I also strived to capture the sense of calm that we witness in even the wildest of storms… between the crashing waves, when water pools in soft reflections and gently spills like waterfalls.
“Storm Surf on Ocean Point”, 30”x40” oil painting by Brad Betts, ASMA
The studies completed for this commission are available for purchase:
One of our favorite hikes is the Morse Mountain trail to Seawall Beach in Phippsburg. The two-mile hike leads through diverse habitats - from salt marshes, up the small mountain to towering granite cliffs, on to the Pitch Pine Critical Habitat, down the hill past old farmsteads to another glimpse of the marsh before the trail opens to the sand dunes and the gorgeous expanse of Seawall Beach.
We often walk around the point near Popham Beach to a spot we call “Secret Beach”, a small private crescent of sand hidden behind a large granite outcropping on the water’s edge. This weekend, we explored the woods behind Secret Beach and the rock outcropping and found, at the base of a spruce tree, a box. A note on the cover said “Do not discard! This is a letterbox.” Inside there was a notepad with a welcome note and a print of an artist’s stamp dated July 3, 2009. Wrapped in green felt, there was a hand-carved rubber stamp of a mountain scene.
Upon googling it, we learned a letterbox is a form of geocaching, where artists design and make their own rubber stamp and then hide it in a waterproof box in a public area, often parks and conservation lands. Those who find the letterbox leave a print of their own artist stamp in the notepad before re-hiding the letterbox in its original spot.
We were the second group to find the letterbox, 9-1/2 years after it was hidden at Seawall Beach. Not having stamps but wanting to leave our mark, we created two sketches that, for the curious, are also two clues: a graphite sketch of the view looking south of the letterbox, and a watercolor sketch of the view looking northwest of the letterbox.
So if you are game for an incredible hike and a treasure hunt, pack your art kit (or rubber stamp and pad if you have one) and head to Morse Mountain. If you find the letterbox, please take a picture of the artwork you leave behind and send it to us so we can share it here. Happy hunting!
I wanted Maine blueberry pie… so I painted it!
The old stable below the barn. Experimenting with watercolors this winter and tried to capture timelessness in this sketch - the abandoned bird’s nest in the rafters, old bit on the wall, stacks of lumber leaning below the gate - offset by the present, in the freshly made footsteps in the snow and the cast of the mid-day sun’s shadows.
“Surf in Winter Storm”, 9x12 watercolor by Brad Betts, ASMA
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