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Canoe Paddlers At Kidney Pond, Baxter State Park

Oil on linen 29 inches by 34 inches by michael E. Vermette

Back in my studio on Indian Island I worked the composition of the canoe paddlers

from Virgina on a larger course linen. I relied on the watercolor study to get the size

of Double Top Mountain right as well as the proportions of the reflection. I took

multiple photographs that day of the mountain and of the people canoeing. I took

various different photos of my canoe as well that was brought along side an old

weathered fallen log. But the problem with relying on photographs, although they

are great for detail reference, is that they distort the image because of the convex

nature of the lens. So I adjusted the photo image with the painted study I made to

make it become more like what I witnessed that day. I did this by making Double

Top Mountain larger as in my study, leaving the middle ground alone while adding

the canoers, and decreasing the foreground by adding more information like my

canoe, the log, and the branches underwater where the rest of the tree had fallen

into the pond. In order to do this I had to value my painted study more than the

photo representation. This ultimately gave Double Top Mountain a substantial

presence and a timelessness to the image while the fallen silver gray spruce added

contrasting change. I  also wanted to add a sense of movement and scale by adding

the paddlers and including as much of the experience as I had witnessed that day.

I had just set my easel up and started painting the watercolor study in the morning,

when minutes later this image played out as it does so many time at Kidney Pond. 

It is visually exciting to witness how paddlers break the mirroring reflections of the

mountain and the rich tranquil forest that lines the early morning lake.  Kidney

Pond is a wonderful location to view multiple mountains from the water's edge

and a favorite paddling adventure for many.