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My wife, then girlfriend, introduced me to Long Island Maine.  It's a small, but beautiful island, formally part of Portland, ME but it has since seceeded and become its own town.  We went out by mailboat and then walked to the other side of the island to a beautiful beach facing the open Atlantic. I found the water there to be very bracing compared to the beaches on the mainland.

There's a lot more history to explore on this island - it was a gathering and refueling point for convoys in World War II but that is a story for another time.

At the far end of the beach beyond the sand dunes and rocks is a beautiful house that has always captured my attention.

Years later, while chaperoning an 8th grade class trip to Long Island I completed the following two sketches for future reference, using the later as reference for the sunset watercolor.

  

These sketches were all filed away for years.  At the time these were painted I didn't really have any developed working method.

Now, from time to time I'll revist sketches when conditions don't allow for painting on location. Below is an example of some small compositional sketches and notes and a quick color study that had an emphasis on the sky as I was quite interested to see what effect different perspectives would have on the mood of the painting.

I'd really like to set up on the beach for a good storm.....

#workingmethods #seriespainting #watercolor #pencil #charcoal #pleinairpainting #Maine #longisland #arttherapy #LongIsland #cascobay