Blog

COME BACK ALIVE

Two days ago I completed this 30 x 40 inch impasto oil on canvas using assorted palette knives and my own black oil wax medium. I call it "Iridescent Light On Pulpit Rock", because I wanted to depict the sense of vertigo with the angles of shore and rock and this sort of light on location that can mesmerize a plein air painter.

But few people know the story of what happened to me more than a decade ago during a workshop I was teaching, and how I almost lost my life at this very place and on this very ledge. Many plein air painters have gotten distracted and let their guard down due to the exceptional iridescent atmosphere on this island, and compositions that can be so tantalizing before them that mistakes can be made. Anne Hubert once told me that James Fitzgerald stepped back once while observing in this manner and fell on the backside of the island about 70 feet. Apparently bruised and OK, he shook it off. But when he got back to his room in the village he shook uncontrollably, thinking that he could have died.

For me, It happened was with my painter friend and student at the time James Toothaker. I wanted to show him a spectacular location that offered an amazing view of Pulpit Rock. That is, If he was willing to do a Little rock climbing and portaging of our painting equipment. We took a trail down through the grassy summit of the cliff and over to the ledge that was over 100 feet above sea level. To get there we climbed over boulders and rocks helping each other with our painting gear. Finally, all sweaty and a little tired, we reach this perfectly flat ledge with Pulpit Rock as big as you please before us. And we were glad of the occasional wind that cooled us down.

I often have taught the concept that when you get close enough to your subject, as in Georgia O'keffe's words, "it is already half painted." And this was a perfect example of not only being inside the psychological space of this hulking rock, but close enough to view it as a Paul Cezanne' painting with its myriad of angles, non that lined up with another. So it would be quite a challenge to paint.

The ledge also gave us plenty of room to set up and it even had a smaller flat rock we used as a table surface for our gear. This place, though beautiful with its transparent deep translucent waters below and faceted diamond like rock angles, give one a feeling of vertigo, especially when standing on the edge of the ledge.looking down. But that for me, is were the image was. Like Jame Fitzgerald painted, I wanted to capture the water swirling around the base of the rock as the tide moved in. To do that I had to set my easel right on the edge of the rock ledge we were on so that I could see the water ebbing and flowing around Pulpit Rock's base.

After standing and observing for a while, I got a false sense of safety when my sturdy half sketch Julian easel was set up. I took out my stretch watercolor paper over an oil painting stretcher frame and securely attacked it to the easel and even adjusted the angle so the wind wouldn't blow the easel back. Then I attached my umbrella so that I could shade my work area, fully deploying it. But my pack was a fair distance behind me in my pack and on the rock table with my brushes and water container. When I turned to reach for them, I noticed out of the corner of my eye that the wind had picked up and the upward wind draft filled that umbrella and proceeded to blow my whole easel unit over the cliff.

Without even thinking, I reacted by jumped for the legs and grabbed onto them with both of my hands, landing hard onto the rock surface and finding myself looking down half over the ledge. I remember thinking that there was hundreds of dollars worth of equipment and materials I was holding onto, but without letting go of the legs I would have no chance of climbing back onto the ledge.

And there I hung looking toward a deep ocean current and waves about 100 feet down in a diving position. Then suddenly I felt the hands of my good friend Jaimes Toothaker on the back of my legs who said, "I got Ya!" He was the counter weight I needed to help me back up on to the ledge and miraculously, we even managed to saved my easel and art supplies that day. It was like being saved by an angel.

Needless to say, counting our blessings, we both set up further back on the ledge, and it was the first time that I associated Monhegan as a Wild place. If you should get injured out here it would be hours before you could get help. And falling into the water, with its strong under currents, if you survived the plunge, would do you in as well. Your best bet would be to swim on your back away from the coast and hope that one of the lobsterman could pick you up. No one has ever survived swimming back to the rocky coast in these waters.

So, needless to say, we packed away our umbrellas, moved farther back and completed our watercolors that day. Although it is humbling to tell this story, with all of the "Mary Poppins" jokes I endured, I wanted to share the danger that is not always obvious on the backside of the Monhegan Island. Also how I should have known better, but was so mesmerized by the beauty of angles and light, that I let my guard down for a moment, reacted badly, and that mistake of attaching my umbrella and leaving it unattended, almost became my undoing. If there is a moral to painting in a beautiful and dangerous place, I t would be this: have a friend with you. They may be able to save you from yourself. Without my friend Jim on that day, my situation would have been grave indeed.

Last year I was invited to participate in the auction fundraiser, on Monhegan Island "Doc On The Rock". The idea was to auction off paintings by several painters who painted the Monhegan, to support the cause of funding a full time doctor and clinic on the island. I'm all for that by experience, and hope to be asked again this year to further the cause.

Soon I will be teaching two plein air workshops, one in June at Rangeley through The Rangeley Friends of the Arts and one in September on Monhegan Island This Fall at the Island Inn, and beginning at the Spruce Point Resort in Boothbay Harbor, Maine. And although I intend to produce many painted studies and demonstrate being a productive painter in these wild places, my primary focus and motto will always be, "Make sure in Your plans, that you come back alive".

Paint the Peninsula Week 2026--Artist Registration

I have registered in Advance to participate in the "Paint the Peninsula"Week,the annual fresh-paint fundraiser that showcases local artists and benefits the Blue Hill Public Library. This will be the second that I have been registered into. The other one I'm participating in is "Camden On Canvas" to benefit the Camden Public Library.

Thanks to the generous participation of all the artists last year in both of these auctions they enjoyed a wonderful success, and they are excited to host it once again! 

"Paint the Peninsula" is the Blue Hill library's most significant fundraiser, with typically well over 100 freshly-painted works of art sold each year. It is a valued partnership with the local artist community that is critical in supporting the library's mission to serve the Blue Hill Peninsula. The library is profoundly grateful that year after year, artists have dedicate their vision to helping the library in its mission and humbly request that they be "as generous as they are comfortable being."

The fundraiser is a hybrid event featuring both in-person viewing and an online auction. Artists will have one week (Monday, June 29th - Monday, July 6th) to complete up to two work(s). In the spirit of "fresh paint," we ask that you take only one day for each piece. Submissions will be accepted at the library on Tuesday, July 7th. Our artwork will be displayed in the library and on the auction website, Auctria, from Monday July 13th through Saturday July 18th. Bidding will take place solely on the auction site.

I plan on painting with my friend Eric Glass from Gardiner. Maine. It should be a lot of fun and challenging to paint up to two paintings no larger than 20 x 20 inches.

Ebay Auction Style Spring Sale Closing

I will be ending my Ebay Spring Sale in about a week. I will not reduce the prices of the opening bids because the work is already dropped down to 1/3 of the price sold in a gallery. Also the frames are professionally and custom made. So if you are interested in getting a quality painting at an amazing price, check them out by going to the eBay sight, typing in the search bar: Paintings of Michael E. Vermette. Other paintings may also pop up, but keep scrolling, all of my paintings can be found in this search.

Have an amazing week co-creating in nature with God, and remember to be safe out there,

Michael E. Vermette