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The following is the fifth journal entry on February 22nd, of Michael E. Vermette's Artist-in-residency at Crawford Notch at the Appalachian Mountain Club's new Outdoor Highland Center in Crawford Notch State Park and the White Mountain National Forest, New Hampshire. The duration of his residency was a week long, between February 19th to February 25th, 2017. In this time he created 11 painted sketches that were made completely outdoors en plein air within the region. Sometimes near the lodge, other times hiking up to 5 miles to and from a site on snowshoes with his studio on his back, he painted in the coldest weather and in the most challenging conditions. On the first day he featured a presentation of the White Mountain Painters and the following week an Open Studio exhibition of his work, displaying two new paintings each day between 4PM and 6PM for the guests at the AMC Highland Center. This is his story.

Following The Inner Check

Yesterday, after running the gauntlet and producing two beautiful oil studies I arrived back at the AMC Highland Center with an hour to spare before my Open Studio began at 4PM. So I drove up route 302 to do a little sight seeing and listening to the Spirit for possible subject ideas for the following day. Being so close to Vermont, I was particularly looking for open water and a combination of "snow, ice and water" after one of my favorite watercolors James Fitzgerald made of an icy brook. As I quickly drove by I got an immediate check in my spirit upon passing a small brook to my right. I turned around to investigate the view as a possibility and found it to have a lot of the same qualities as Jim's masterpiece. It was a charming brook that had frozen ice forming on top of the slow moving dark spring water that had deep snow on each of its winding banks in contrast. The brook ran toward me under the highway's small bridge, easy to overlook when driving fast. Later I was pleased to find on a map that very brook was Crawford Brook and part of the watershed that ran into Ammonoosuc Lake just behind the AMC Outdoor Center. This further fueled my resolve to paint it.

After taking a few photos, I put this site in the back of my mind and I drove North up 302 once again toward Bretton Woods to observe the view from Eisenhower Viewpoint. It was a spectacular panoramic view alright, but still, I wanted to get closer. Crossing the highway once again I ventured down the long driveway of the Mount Washington Hotel Road. There I admired the spacious and grand views of Mount Washington and mountains leading up to it. As I drove down to the ski shop I realized that this location that I had heard so much about, would also be a great painting site. It became increasingly clear to me that I could set up just beyond the hotel and resort buildings with an unobstructed view of Mount Washington from the golf course.

Both of these sites became very appealing to me since they didn't involve a lot of hiking, deep snow and were of easy access from the AMC Highland Center. After such a day like yesterday and even the day before I felt that there was no need to overextend myself. I needed some "down time" to refocus and find an easier location to recover physically. I was confident that I had found my two subjects for today.

This morning was overcast and it didn't yield itself too much by way of a spectacular sunrise. Continuing with my routine of journaling while eating my breakfast, I resolved to paint Crawford Brook. I virtually set up in the breakdown lane on the bridge right off the 302 highway. My coat was perfect for this task. It was warm, weather proof, an excellent wind breaker and it could be seen a mile away complete with reflectors sewn into the back of the coat. With next to no room in the breakdown lane I pulled over as far as I could and parked my car about 100 yards before the bridge. Then I lugged my equipment to the bridge for an excellent view. Cars and big rig trucks were whizzing by at 60 to 70 miles per hour all morning long, making the whole experience a little unnerving. But I soon settled down and began painting the oil sketch. I concentrated on the color of the water as it slowly moved toward me with its deep cool reflections. There was a fair amount of distance I could include in this study, but I chose to concentrate instead on the ever changing color tones of pale teal to lavender grey water with a trace of mauve. There was a silver dried up tree near the stream's bank with a bright blue shadow mark that added a pleasing pinkish mint accent and served as a perfect tension spot that set off the whole painting's color scheme.

A car pulled up behind me and a young Asian woman got out of the car to engage in conversation with me. She was visibly excited and surprised to find me painting there and said she was a student at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. She asked if she could take my picture and I complied thinking that she probably needed proof for her friends back at her dorm to believe her that she actually found a plein air painter sketching in February. She liked my work and gave me a generous compliment. Then she drove off almost as fast as she came. Her presence was very confirming to me since she was part Chinese and Part American, the two influences in James Fitzgerald's paintings and my own. After she left I also picked up and moved on. No need trying my luck. These trucks seemed to be getting closer, and they were not showing any courtesy in slowing down. So I took an early lunch at the AMC Center.

Each of us has the responsibility to develop our own creative abilities. So much of our talent depends on the ebb and flow of when to move forward and when to simply rest to receive, and get our creative wells filled. This requires of us to allow the very Spirit of the Creator in nature to open wide our eyes and fill us up with inspiration. Perhaps one of the greatest plein air painters of all time, Vincent Van Gogh once said, "It is not the language of painters, but the language of nature which one should listen to." This place of listening that Van Gogh is speaking about is a quiet place that painters sometimes call, "down time." Essentially it is a place where the artist will withdraw without distraction to do nothing but listen, watch and allow oneself to be filled by their Creator. It could be lying on a couch in a quiet room gazing out of a window on a sunny day. Or for me, on this morning, it was painting an insignificant and much overlooked brook that had the influence to inspired and fill my creative wells. What I was seeking this morning was stamina to acquire strength and energy after two very physically tiring days. Humility always opens the door to inspiration. And when we open ourselves to a divine guidance it will always come to us and in many ways, even through the voice of others. But this morning it came to me in a slow moving snow, ice and cold water brook that all began with an inner divine drive-by check in my spirit.