Just back from a week in Michigan last night, but I wanted to post some of my sketch book drawings from our week in Maine back in early October. As you know, I always take a sketch book with me wherever I go. On vacation I take the time to observe what is around me and draw what I see. I like to do this not only for the experience to keep my hand drawing, but to really look and see my surroundings, documenting where the Captain and I travel. This sketch is in downtown Greenville, Maine, population 1700. This is a really nice antique/gift shop that had plenty of vintage items as well. In the window they had moose antlers, a stuffed bear,lots of antique camp items, deer heads, old furniture, interesting vintage items. I bought an old toy canoe sculpted by a local artist along with an vintage dark blue felt pennant, they kind they used to have in the 50's that you bought on vacation as a souvenir that says Moosehead Lake. It is really cool and now hangs in my new studio.
Around the corner from the Kamp Kamp antique and gift shop is this little group of stores. The Northwoods Outfitters usually has tons of people renting canoes and kayaks, but with the cold windy weather, there was not a lot of rentals going on the week we visited.
No sketch book of Maine is complete without some evergreen trees...these I did out the window of our inn one rainy afternoon. I just love how sturdy they are, strong and tall, like sentinels standing along the front of the inn.
Along the front of Blair House Inn is a beautiful deck covered with white wicker furniture, tables, chairs and couches, that looks directly out to Moosehead Lake. I sat there one morning and sketched the lake from the front porch with my cup of Maine brewed coffee right at my side.
Our room was up on the third floor. It was a large room, painted yellow, with a window box and 3 large windows that looked right out to the lake. I sat there a couple of times when it was raining and did some sketches. This time I turned into the room and just did a quick drawing of the beautiful large queen bed that we had. It was all hand carved and quite lovely as you can see, outfitted with wonderful sheets and a duvet that was all that heavenly Egyptian cotton with the high thread counts that always feels so good.
The inn was lovely and charming with wonderful period furniture and appointments. This is the old fireplace of the house that I sketched one late afternoon sitting in a large comfy chair right in front of the blazing fire, warm and snuggy!
There were 4 of these large comfy chairs sitting in front of the fireplace, surrounding a table in the center, a great place to sit and read or have a cup of tea or just sketch like I did. They were very inviting.
Across from the fireplace was this lovely old secretary. Inside the glass doors on the top of the desk were some old books and a couple of vases. The inn keepers kept the dinner menus on the desk that they offered on the weekends. It called to me to draw it so I did.
Among the period furnishings the innkeepers so lovingly restored, were some beautiful lamps and lighting fixtures. Not something that I usually am drawn to, these were all from the 1800's, brass with silk shades and really lovely.
These Victorian lights hung from the living room ceiling. I just thought they were so pretty and interesting, a bit difficult to draw because you are always looking up and the angle was tricky, but I got the essence of the lights. The cut glass leaf designs inside the glass domes of the lights were so delicate, the handicraft of the lights so amazing, the type of design you just do not see anymore... perhaps a lost skill now with technology taking over the manufacturing of most lamps today.
That is all for now, after being gone a week I have to get back to work. Just noticed another e mail from China coming in requesting more approvals on my new Christmas group.
Hey, can you believe it is November already?
enjoy,
carol
