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"Fish Houses Of Sand Beach, Monhegan Island, Maine" 

Michael E. Vermette captured this painted watercolor en plein air from the back view of the fish houses above Fish Beach, Monhegan Island, Maine. Here he depicts the fish houses on an overcast day when the light is defused and devoid of strong shadows, thus giving it a more out-to-sea ole' salt feel. This painting has amazing textural qualities further enhanced by the artist's choice to use front lighting, that brings out the pattern of the image. Like many of the great painters who paint with a limited palette, Michael does the same while adding tension colors by way of the brightly colored fish barrels that act to set the painting off and bring out a whole range of colorfully toned grays.

Michael says, "I wanted to capture the mood and texture of these fish houses in a simplified way by making a watercolor without a lot of detail, but use instead the handmade paper and its grain to describe the surfaces of the subject. By allowing passages of light and shadow, no matter how subtle, to make up the design of the watercolor, rather than relying on excessive detail for detail sake. The painting is free to become so much more and alive. The truth of the subject in all it's salty reality is pealed back when you concentrate on pure design rather than overworking the image with every stroke seen on the surface. In this way, the artist makes the first discriminating choices, using his sense of rightness, than the viewer can relate to the painting by playing more of a role in personal interpretation. Spelling it all out leaves little room for the viewer to imagine anything more that stark reality, not necssarily the truth of it all."

This is an watercolor painting made on location on an overcast day and rendered in Michael's pure and bold range of beautiful transparent gray washes. Michael wet the back of the page before painting in order to draw the color into the page and create a brighter statement of wash and to improve its textural grain. He uses a descriptive stroke that describes lines of power, motion, and shape in describing the character of the fish houses on Fish Beach, yet he paints with a subtlety that captures even the lightest veils of light upon the weathered wooden buildings with hints of Manna Island peaking through in the distance. He painted this study on a handmade Twinrocker heavy weight watercolor paper. He uses only pure Holbein watercolor and Daniel Smith mineral watercolor pigments to achieve the color and the textural grain that is most prized by watercolor painters who have painted on this amazing paper, specially designed and sized for the watercolor medium. He also wets the back of the paper to create even more of a richer statement of color in his washes and to overstate the tones of the grays.

Michael also says, "I am intrigued with the timelessness in change in my paintings. They show a love of color and light with emphasis on the expressive painterly mark and form, which evoke a recognizable feeling, a nostalgic memory, or even emotional qualities such as the smell of salt and balsam in the morning ocean air."

Carl Little writes in Volume 30 of The Island Journal, " Michael Vermette, who emulates the vision of one of Monhegan island's great painters of the past, James Fitzgerald (1899-1971), adds impasto oomph to iconic views"

Michael E. Vermette double majored in Painting and Printmaking at the Maine College of Art, receiving his B.F.A Painting degree in 1980. He received his Certification in K-12 Art Education in 1986 through the University of Maine at Orono. A full-time artist and part-time art educator, Michael has been painting in oil, watercolor, and pastel for over fifty years and has won numerous awards for his work, including the Marilyn Sabin, Lauran Coleman and the Beverly Awards at the 12th,13th and 14th Biennial North American Open Shows of the New England Watercolor Society where he has been awarded signature membership. Most recently, Has been been awarded the honor of being the 1st Allagash Wilderness waterway artist-in-residency for the summer of 2020 where he expects to paint another 50 small studies. Michael is also the 2018 first place winner of the Castine Plein Air Festival, and a 2015-2017 winner as well. He won Best of Show in the Kennebunk River Club Art Exhibit and Sale for his watercolor, "Sea Dog". Michael leads several oil and watercolor plein air painting workshops in Maine and New Hampshire throughout the year. He is a Monhegan Artists' Residency Fellow and the 2011 Baxter State Park Artist-in-Residence in Maine. He was also an Artist-in-Residence at Acadia National Park twice in 1999 and 2006. His watercolors, oils, and pastels are in private collections throughout the country and internationally. In Maine, his works have been shown at various galleries and is currently represented by the Frame and Art Gallery in Yarmouth, The Lupine Gallery on Monhegan Island, and the Gleason Fine Art Gallery in Boothbay Harbor, all located in Maine. Because of the very high quality of the painting the starting price is set at 1/4 of the painting's worth. Because of this high quality and the confidence with quality custom shipping, I do not allow money back returns at this time.