"Monhegan Museum, Before Hours" oil 12 x 9

Last night we had our monthly Girls Just Wanna Paint  meeting to discuss our marsh-themed paintings.  Our meeting was at one of the member's new homes.  As she gave us a tour, I saw this painting of mine on her bedroom wall.  I haven't seen it in over a decade, and it was a nice treat to remember the day and circumstances of its painting.  We have spent time on Monhegan Island, ME each summer for the last dozen years.  I painted "Monhegan Museum, Before Hours" on our first visit there, which was magical. I painted morning, noon, and evening every day, exploring the island, returning to our rented house for food, or a break, then heading out again.  The house we rent has a bookshelf on which my paintings and my artist friends' paintings would accumulate as they dried over the week. I paint a lot each time I visit, but have never been as prolific as on that first week. 

On this day, one of my first there, I hiked up to the lighthouse hill, tucked in by the art museum entrance and began painting the interesting roof lines, and light and shadow pattern.  I was all alone on the hill, lit by the sea and sun.  I remember thinking, "Wow, Monhegan is pretty remote and isolated, it's so uninhabited up here... ".  Turns out the museum opens at 11AM, and the hill was deserted because nothing was open.  In fact, it got quite busy just before 11 as the light was shifting.  You know when you are painting and so focused that something happening in your surroundings may not sink in right away?  That was me... "eventually realizing there were people, why the shift, what's different, oh, I'm blocking the door to something that must open now, oh, it's the art museum, what time is it anyway?" 

 So, I have visited Lighthouse Hill since, a number of times earlier in the morning to take advantage of the quiet and solitude, and the beautiful white buildings backlit by the rising morning sun.  

Seeing my painting in my friend's house brought all those memories flooding back.   I love Monhegan now as I loved it when I first set foot there, thanks for reminiscing with me.