Blog

Welcome to you who have recently joined my newsletter. I hope everyone is having a great summer so far. I am finally a full time painter and fully retired from my public art teaching position. For 36 years I not only represented my own art but the art of Maine Indian Education and the students of the Indian Island School. Now for the rest of my life I will be living for my own art and discovering what that will be like for the first time. as you may notice, I will be continuing to teach adult education and adult workshops as well as special groups such as the Maine Youth Wilderness Leadership students through the Friends of Baxter. But as for public school art education I am officially retired into a full time artist position.

So far I have hit the ground running by first participated in the "Paint the Peninsula" plein air festival with my fellow colleague Eric Glass. I painted three plein air paintings on the Blue Hill Peninsula between June 24th and June 27th. They are from atop Blue Hill Mountain, Flye Point and Pumpkin Island on Deer Isle. I entered two that will go up for auction at the Blue Hill online auction on July 11th, click herefor a link to Blue Hill Library. They are, "Pumpkin Island Lighthouse, Deer Isle, ME" and "Flye Point Island, Flye Point, Blue Hill. The third panel I painted was just before a thunder storm over Blue Hill Bay from Blue Hill Mountain. This painting I will sell to anyone who would also like to support the Blue Hill Library cause through this website. Just email me with an offer of $600.00 dollars or more and I will sell it to the highest bidder. . The paintings, like the others, are all framed in the black lacquer and gold Kiowa plein air frame from Judson's outfitters. 50% of the proceeds of the sale I will send to the Blue Hill Library.

The bidding for the two paintings above will start on the Blue Hill website on July 12th and the public viewing will be open between July 11th to July16th, 2021. The online auction ends Saturday July 16th.

Good News! I also sold one of my watercolor figure paintings at the Maine College of Art & Design COLLECT online and in person sale ending on June 25th. The painting was called, "Launching the Skiff from Fish Beach, Monhegan Island".

I continued to paint in the Wiscasset Plein Air Festival at the end of June til July 2nd at the opening reception and art sale. I painted 5 oil paintings in two and a half days, again with my fellow colleague Eric Glass whom I stayed with in Gardiner. I was double awarded with a Juror's Choice award and the People's Choice award for my oil, "View from Fort Hill Street, Wiscasset, ME". All of the paintings are currently on sale at the Maine Art Gallery with a 30% off discount if you act by tomorrow July 9th by 4PM, the close of the show. So you have to decide quick and the following are the paintings that I made.

This last week I have completed and entered a small oil that will be going up for sale at the Cape Ann Plein Air Art Festival in an online sale. As they have put it, "We want to introduce you to the CAPA world through an online sale this summer! An online sale is a fun and easy way to get your work out to our growing audience." This is an unusually small oil for me measuring 6 x 8 inches. The oil painting is called "Burnt Head Surf from the Boar's Head, Monhegan Island, ME" and is painted in my impasto style. If you would like more information on how to purchase this painting with a starting price of $300.00 click Here. The online show is not currently up now but should be in the coming weeks.

Next week on Monday, July 11th to Friday, July 16th I will be at Rangeley conducting my Plein Air watercolor workshop with even more sites chosen from the Artist's Trail. We will start with a free introductory Watercolor plein air class on Monday night, July 11, 6-8 PM at SoJo's Maker's Space, 2487 Main St in Rangeley. I will be going over best practices with plein air equipment and painting techniques to prepare participants for a successful workshop. We will also have back Nora West who has graciously agreed to be our workshop monitor again this year. The workshop still has room for 4 more students, so if you would like to register or know someone who might like to join us please register as soon as you can. The workshop begins Tuesday, July 12th at 8 am and ends Friday, July 15th at 12 noon. This workshop has been growing in popularity and this year is promising to be productive and a lot of fun..

More to come in the weeks to follow including the Camden on Canvas plein air auction that benefits the Camden Public Library. I will be painting July 29th and 30th en plein air and the auction night will be on July 31st. For more information click here.

I Hope you are all having a creative and inspiriring summer!

Michael E. Vermette