Boston Whalers

I took a motorcycle ride the other night and ended up here, at the end of Tonset Road in Orleans. It's such a beautiful spot, looking out towards Nauset Beach. All the Boston Whalers were tucked in for the night after a long day clamming on the sheltered inlet. It was a perfect evening- warm, no wind.....only, there's a little problem with that- the gnats were ferocious!

This sunset photo was taken a little closer to my house at a Brewster beach. The sun sets on the Cape Cod Bay, but the moon rises over the Atlantic Ocean. I generally try not to ride at night (too dangerous) so I didn't wait for the moon to rise, but I'm sure it was perfect. There's nothing like a sunset and a moon rise on the Cape.

West Dennis Sail Boats

It's a beautiful summer day here on the Cape. Everyone seems to be at the beach (except me of course!). I've been busy painting most of the day except for the couple of hours doing errands and picking up more work. Doing errands is my big outing of the day. Sometimes it's the ONLY outing of my day- the only chance I get to see real humans! Ok, it's not like I live out in the deep woods or anything, but I just don't go anywhere.

This is a painting I did a few years ago and sold it to the very nice woman who's house it is. I can't remember how she ended up seeing the painting, but she found it and bought it! I was actually focusing on the boats, but her house just happened to be in the background.

Anyway, I love finding photo's of old paintings.

New Hampshire Visit

I took a mini vacation to NH this week! It's about a 3.5 hr. drive from here. It just happened to be on the hottest 2 days of the year so as you can tell by my photos, the water was the main attraction! This river is in N. Conway. Here is what the locals do when it's hot. (click to enlarge) These kids had just been jumping off a rope swing down river a bit. The current was very weak so it was easy for them to kayak up and down the river.

Here is what I do when it's hot. Yes, I did go in with my clothes on, but who cares? It was in the 90's and I was on vacation. (I love being a tourist for once!)  This river was so clear and mostly only a couple of feet deep. As you can see I am kneeling just to get wet.  I was in river heaven! (no sharks) Oh, and while I was in the water a beautiful dragonfly landed on my arm. If you follow my Ebay paintings you will notice I painted a dragonfly this week in honor of him/her.

We saw quite a few covered bridges. This one was at the Flume Gorge in Lincoln NH. If you've never been, it's a strenuous walk up hill, and up actual stairs for about a mile along the gorge then down a steep hill for the other half. Talk about a work out! The gorge was very beautiful though.

Going along the Kancamangus Hwy. there were spots were you could stop and check out the river that ran along side of it. At this particular spot there were lots of people in the river escaping from the heat. (see the two guys?) It was so clear and beautiful -and shallow too. (I have a thing about shallow water) 

This is the N. Conway scenic railroad. You ride on a train that was made in the 1800's. as it wobbled along a track for about 5 miles then back - mostly seeing woods. Once in a while though you got a peak of a mountain or a river. I never really realized that train whistles are so obnoxiously loud!

All in all, my favorite part of going to NH was the crystal clear, shallow rivers.

Pretty Angels

Today I sat down to paint- sailboats and such, but I had an overwhelming urge to paint angels. I felt them and there was no denying their call. So, I just stopped with the pretty sailboats and got down to the 'real work'.

Here are a couple Angels that just HAD to be seen and get out in the world.  

Here's one of the pretty sailboats that - well, isn't actually my 'real work'.

http://stores.ebay.com/Cape-Cod-Artist

It's late Sunday night and I've been so busy enjoying the weekend I forgot to blog! I did, however take photo's which I will post soon. For now I'm going to post these of my cats....Kiya- who found some crinkly plastic (she loves the sound of it)..

and Simba, who sleeps with chicken wings...

Another shot of Kiya playing in the plastic. Don't worry, I was watching her with it, then I threw it away deep in the garbage where she couldn't get it. I don't want my baby getting suffocated.

Ahhh and here is the sunset at West Dennis beach the other night. Brielle and I walked the 2 miles after dinner. It was sooo nice! Well, that's it for now. I have been working on some really large paintings, which I will reveal soon. If I only had about 5 extra hours in my day!

Chatham Ma.

This weekend I went to Chatham and it was such a beautiful summer's day I thought I'd share it with you. This is Stage Harbor- this old classic wooden boat was about to go under the little rickety draw bridge. They were probably just coming back from a great day on Monomoy.

Here is Pleasant Bay. It always looks pleasant!

Then I just has to stop and take my yearly photo of this house with the hydrangeas in full bloom. What a sight! (what a house!)

This is such a typical scene in Chatham- the roses crawling up an arbor or on the house, hydrangeas and an American flag.

I couldn't leave out the Chatham Lighthouse! Right across from the Atlantic Ocean- where people love to swim and the Great White sharks play. We rarely used to see them before but now the seal population has grown so much that it's drawing the Great Whites to Cape Cod. I hear they only eat tourist though.  

Cape Cod Maps

http://stores.ebay.com/Cape-Cod-Artist

This week on Ebay I listed some of my maps and map collages. Here is a little sampling. This top map is hand colored and framed. (9"x12")

The rest of these are framed ACEO (miniature) collages made from maps and my own artwork. This collage of Martha's Vineyard has a sailboat painted right on the collage.

This one of Provincetown/Truro has a print of my Long Point Lighthouse painting on it.

And this one of Nantucket has all kinds of interesting things collaged into it- local things like Lobsters and Blue Heron's. Oh, and the Brant Point Lighthouse of course.

Check them out in my Ebay store now: http://stores.ebay.com/Cape-Cod-Artist

Red Tailed Hawk Makes Landing

Yesterday I got a knock on the door from my (very excited) neighbor to come see the Hawk on his roof. I couldn't believe that a Hawk would still be sitting on his roof by the time I got over there, but here it is!

Apparently, he had been up there for about  20 minutes already -spreading his wings and panting as if to rest and cool down  (it was about 80 degrees out) when a car driving by spotted this great sight. My neighbor couldn't figure out what the people in the car were gawking at until he stepped outside.

I got a couple of really nice photo's, then my camera batteries died. (Note to self: Never go out without extra batteries!!!!)

Anyway, I'm no bird expert but, I think this is a Red Tailed Hawk. (Check out it's red tail!) These were the best photo's so I thought I'd share them with you. It's not every day you get to capture such a magnificent bird just sitting there!

4th of July on Cape Cod

Happy 4th of July!

I couldn't resist putting this photo on my blog for the holiday because the flag is standing so proudly in the background. It's as if the flowers represent the beauty of our country and yet the flag-  waving steadily in the background,  represents the core values of our wonderful country and the freedom we experience by living here.  

This photo was taken on Great Western Rd. in Dennis. It's an industrial area and yet one of the warehouses has grown a little patch of sunshine. These poppies are soooo beautiful I may be painting them sometime soon! (click to enlarge).

Happy 4th of July weekend! I hope you are all enjoying a fun filled few days. I have been trying to make the best of it, but when the Cape swells up with tourists and their cars, it's hard to even get around, so I'm basically just trying to stay in until Tuesday.

(Me, and most of the locals).

Anyway, I was browsing through some of my recent photo's last night and I zoomed in to see if I could find any good painting material in this photo when I spotted this... (see below)

(click on it to enlarge)

What are these people doing? At first I thought they were baptizing someone or- the worst case scenario- drowning someone and I caught it on camera. I was waaaaay across the beach in my car using a zoom lens to take the photo so it was possible. Then I had the kids look at it and they pointed out that what I thought was someones head being pushed under was probably knees with cropped brown pants on. What do you think?