Sarah's Books - Used & Rare

I haven't been neglecting painting lately, despite burying myself in books much of the time. Since Ryan and I are now commuters, I come into the shop much earlier in the morning, and have up to two hours to spend in my studio before opening for business. Sometimes I sit and stare at my work and wonder what the hell I think I'm doing, and other times I actually pick up a paintbrush. So here are two recent paintings (the color is much more vivid than this, but my digital camera is such an ancient clunker). Both of these measure 18 x 24". The first is an old cape house on one of the islands I stayed on last summer:

Plain old cape houses fit the Maine landscape perfectly. Their proportions feel just right. I grew up in a house much like this one, though ours had some Greek revival details for good measure, and a bit more of a real second story. But it had the same essential form, and it seems comfortable, human-sized, and modest, and now I find I want to create pictures of these houses. They're in such contrast to what's usually built on the coast these days - retirement places, usually large and often hideous. Give me a cape, or a Walden cabin instead, any old time.

The second shows part of a coastal park I go to - it's a huge headland with immense ancient pink and orange granite ledges, gray worn-out basalt channels cutting through them, and scraggly old spruce trees and blueberries at the edge of the rocks. I paint different scenes of this place over and over again. I usually paint the rocks and the sea and islands off behind them, but this time it's the landward view instead:

My photographer-friend Michael and I will be having a two-person show this summer. So I'm gathering work this winter, doing some framing, making some new paintings, and hoping for the best. Back to the books -