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"Boats of the Dolphin Marina, Harpswell, Maine"

Located near Brunswick where Michael went to High school, Harpswell is one of the most beautiful rugged coastlines with an amazing marina with unique boat formations that make interesting compositions. Michael studies with Alicia Stonebreaker while in high school and painted en plein air in her outdoor watercolor classes. He was also a student of Alan Gardiner who lived on Bailey's Island and taught printmaking and watercolor painting at Maine College of Art where Michael attended. This location is very special to Michael due to these instructors and also because it was a place that he frequently painted early on in his career. This Painting was captured en plein air many years after receiving his college education at Maine College of Art when Michael returned to Harpswell to teach a plein air watercolor workshop through Maine College of Art Contining Studies program. It is a very simplified composition and a demonstration on focusing on the essential elements of design, devoid of detail. This wharf was one of the promenate docks with an interesting cluster of various different boats.

Michael Says, "I love how a watercolor that is simplified and understated allows the viewer to finish the details in their mind. Although a line or detail clearly seen has been removed, in all actuality, it really is still there. When I decide to remove a line to simplify the details of the boats I am focusing on their relationship to each other and design passages of washes. Even after I have decided to take a detail to simplify it still feels like it's there. "

This is an watercolor painting made on location as a painting demonstration as the fog was lifting at the Marina. Michael went with the the relationship pf the passages of the light and dark relationships of what was in the light verses the dark shadow areas. He paints in a totalistic maner capturing his pure and bold range of transparent washes. Michael uses a descriptive stroke that describes lines of power, motion, and shape in describing the character of the boats of the Dolphin Marina, yet he paints with a subtlety that captures even the lightest veils of light upon the angled shapes that make up the pattern of the boats. He made this painting on an Arches 140 lb cold press 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 rich statement of color in his washes.

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 in the air and the sound of the pounding surf." 

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