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CELT 's 12th Annual Wet Paint Auction 2019 

On the weekend of June 28th-30th, the Cape Elizabeth Land Trust hosted their "Paint For Preservation 2019" 12th annual wet paint Auction. It really marks the beginning of my summer to be fortunate enough to be able to participate in this juried auction. Thirty artists participated in one of Maine's most prestigious plain air events that not only highlighted Cape Elizabeth's natural beauty, but went on to be one of the best auctions for quality art produced in this region. On Sunday, June 30th from 4:00 PM to 7:30 PM at Garrison Field in Cape Elizabeth the auction was live with a catered reception hosted by the Holden Family. Their estate overlooks Pulpit Rock in Cape Elizabeth with a sweeping lawn view to the coast.

The bidding was furious and exciting with the top eight paintings selling in the $5000.00 to $9,500.00 range. My painting, "Zeb Cove Point" was the seventh highest selling painting in the auction. Kaja Vellieux the owner of the Thomaston Place Auction Galleries in Thomaston, Maine was the auctioneer for the night who mentioned during the selling that this was "the best bidding crowd yet," and he was right. This was a bidding audience that placed high bids right from the start to the end; which was a relief for me, since my painting was among the last 4 to go up for auction.

Although the day cleared up to a glorious afternoon at the end of the auction it didn't start out that way. In fact this year's quality art never revealed the perfect battle the artists had to go through to produce their masterpieces. My particular challenge was a pulled ACL muscle in my right knee that made it difficult for me to hike my equipment over the rocks.

The artists were able to create their works on location starting on Friday morning and ending by 2PM on Sunday Afternoon when the work was due back at Garrison Field, and where they were photographed in a garage and then displayed on an easel provided by the painters themselves in the Gallery Tent.

Friday was the best day to paint by far and it was the day I chose to paint on location. It began with fog that socked in and didn't lift until 10 am later in the morning. But then the clouds moved out and it's rays broke through as the front moved out revealing the distant islands as veils being lifted. I just love the moments when the atmosphere changes, making the subject animated with possibilities that are dynamic.

I painted for 8 hours that day and was glad to meet a photographer, Bob Harrison, who took many photos of me camped out and hunkered down amongst the rocks, even before I was aware he was there. I was also grateful for Alice Dillon who watched me the whole day from her upstairs window. She is the women who owns the house on Zeb Cove Point and allowed me access to the rarely seen private rocky coast that I chose as my subject. I love to paint the changelessness in change over time in my subjects. That means I look for a subject that seems to have played out for hundreds of years over and over again rather than including every temporal thing I see. Many of the minor subjects I consider leaving out as unessential. I also believe that the subject wouldn't be interesting at all if it weren't for how the light plays on the subject or how the particular atmosphere captures a specific moment and feeling in time. In my subject I marveled at the endless color found in the rock that appeared as silvery driftwood. It was the surprise of layered, embossed and contrasting colored stone, that must have been created with tremendous heat and pressure, that attracted me the most to this subject.

Saturday was a touch-and-go day of passing showers and breaks in the weather with following afternoon thunder showers. That night it poured even with hail stones as big as a pea.

Sunday lulled the artists out and faithfully poured torrential rain upon these hearty souls who were caught out in an afternoon Thunder Storm that completely soaked them and their paintings. As they made a run for it thunder and lightning boomed near by and visibility was limited to only a few feet. Even as the paintings were being registered at 2PM some of the fresh works were totally covered with beads of water. It was an adventure alright, right out of a fictional story. But we all were able to get our works registered and photographed at the gallery tent before the auction as the cars lined up along the Pulpit Rock road for what seemed a half mile.

But out of this struggle came some of the best works I had ever seen compared to previous CELT auctions. The mission of the Land Trust is to "permanently conserve and provide stewardship for lands cherished by the community - from shore lands to marshes, from farmlands to woodlands - for education, use and enjoyment of this and future generations." As with the popular quote we often find hard to understand, "Beauty Will Save the World", plein air artists painting for preservation is truly one example of how beauty is saving and conserving the environment of Cape Elizabeth.

Mystery Boxes 

About a month before the event we were asked to participate in the Mystery Box Sale and were given our painting locations. For those who may not be familiar with the mystery box sale, it is essentially a handsomely crafted black cardboard box that you can buy with a painting no larger than 10 x 10 inches inside them. The mystery is that you are never allowed to know which of the 30 artists you have purchased or even what medium they have chosen to paint their subject in, which has to be of a Cape Elizabeth location. That is, until you buy one of them. And by then, just as the live auction itself, all sales are final.

The CELT planning board has figured out a a long time ago that there were many people going away from the auction without a painting since there were only 30 paintings that would be sold in the live auction. It's a brilliant idea to help generate more sales, allow more participation, and sell more paintings at an affordable price that serves many more people for a great cause.

In the past years artists could enter their mystery box paintings wet and could only enter up to two paintings. This year they made changes. First they had to be completely dry when registered. Secondly, the participating artists could enter up to three paintings. But what really happened, some of the artists were even more generous and entered up to 4 paintings. As far as I know, all of the boxes sold for $250.00 each and half went to CELT's preservation projects and half went to the artists who painted them.

I entered three mystery box paintings because I didn't know you could enter more. I chose to paint three small studies of Zeb Cove and Zeb Cove Point which was the location that I chose and the place I was assigned. I came up to Cape Elizabeth once I was given my assigned area on a bright sunny day about three weeks ago. I reconnoitered the area by collecting four images that helped me to decide what my final large plein air auction painting would be.The mystery boxes there were stacks high at the auction with a long line of buyers waiting to purchase them while they lasted. In chronological order, first painted "Pulpit Rock, Zeb Cove, Cape Elizabeth, Maine", then "Zeb Cove Point Study No.1", and ending with"Zeb Cove Point Study No.2".

The CELT Paint For Perservation 2019 was a great way to start my summer. I hope all of your summer activities have begun as well. As we go into celebrating together our nation's Independence Day let us be thankful for our beautiful masterpieces, that, like our country, might have been a perfect battle in the making.

Happy Fourth of July everyone,

Michael E. Vermette