Full Moon, Alpine Glow from Sunrise, Katahdin Lake

Full Moon, Alpine Glow From Sunrise, Katahdin Lake

This painting was recently purchased for the new Ridgeview Memorial High School in Dexter, Maine as part of  their Maine Arts Commission Percent for the Arts program 2011-2012. This was one of the most spectacular events I ever witnessed at Katahdin Lake. Observed in the Fall and Painted later in my studio from studies, It depicts a Full Moon setting behind Katahdin while an Alpine Glow is taking place. An Alpine Glow is the first ray of the sun illuminating the top of a mountain, in this case, Katahdin. What made this event so perfect for me was the fact that there was a crystal clear reflection, which almost never happens in the Fall season. Usually when the sun rises the wind blows the reflection away for most of the day.  I have been returning to the Katahdin Lake Wilderness Camps for over 20 years and I have never seen it quite as calm as I did that day. I remember meeting Charles Fitzgerald in the camps that year and wondered if he had any idea of the favor he had in the weather his first time out. In the years to follow he would come to own The Katahdin Lake Wilderness Camps purchasing them from Maine guide Alfred Cooper III. In many ways this painting represents the passing of the torch from one caretaker’s hands to another, the calm before and the winds of change that would follow at Katahdin Lake. Katahdin is the one constant element that remains  in change. I have also painted two watercolors and a monochhrome(Black and White watercolor) of this same image.