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THE PLEIN AIR CONNECTION on Swans Island June 27th to June 29th, 2015

    The Plein across Connection paint-out on Swans Island was an amazing success. We stayed at the "Carrying Place" which is owned by Jess and Alan Herrington. It is an ideal piece of land that joins the two larger lands masses of the island like two wings of a butterfly, with the carrying place as the land bridge in the center. There you will find two excellent views of the by a facing toward Mount Desert Island and the other facing the islands south of the island toward the Atlantic ocean.  This place got it's name when it was reported that Wabanaki tribes of Maine would carry their canoes across this strip of land, rather than go all the way around, to get to the other side of the island where the better fishing grounds were.  We would also like to thank our hosts as well, who helped to coordinate the paint-out, Arrah and Greg Cyr. Their efforts collectively made our stay a memorable one. The other painters who attended were Kay Carter, Diane Porter, Becky Whight, and myself. 

     We were also joined by native Swans islander and painter Iver lofving who brought us to his studio and other studios and special places on the island. Although we didn't conduct Robert Henri's "the race" this year,(attempting to paint up to four paintings per day), we did manage to paint at three wonderful locations. We had excellent weather during those days we painted and are looking forward to doing it again. Swans Island is a unique place with inexhaustable and spectacular coastal scenes that we have just begun to scratch the surface in discovering as painting subjects.The people there are all very welcoming. We all painted a total of 18 to 20 paintings and drawings and held critiques that were more like excellent sharing of our experiences of the day. Thank you everyone for making this weekend so successful.

THE PLEIN AIR CONNECTION on Mohegan Island

   Our next paint-out will be on Monhegan Island between Saturday July 4th to Saturday July 11th. We will be joining three other groups of painters who have also rented cottages including such groups as the Bangor Art Society. There will be a cocktail party for artists to get to know each other on Saturday night on the 4th of July at Chadwick House. I will be staying at the Murdock House with my wife and 4 other artists. We are located on the way to Lobster Cove, the driveway across from the Trailing Yew.There are no more reservations available that I am aware for an overnight stay at this late in the season, but we would welcome day trippers who would like to paint with us for a day on Mohegan Island. The ferry boat round trip is about $35.00 plus $4.00 per day parking. If you are interested please contact Mohegan Boat lines (there are three) for more information. Also you might want to check out Mohegan's Lupine Gallery, I have smaller paintings in that gallery.

Happy 4th of July Everyone! I hope to see you on the painting trail!

Michael E. Vermette

Coordinator of the Plein Air Connection