Painting in Steuben

You know I'm always interested to find new places to paint. Last weekend, I found Steuben! What a gorgeous place, downeast of Acadia. My student, Lucille, was the angel who offered her family camp as a venue for a student retreat (and got a painting in return). And what a retreat! There were seven of us. Friday was gorgeous. Saturday it rained, but we had plenty of room to paint inside at the windows, right on the ocean. Sunday morning the sun broke through.

Words are inadequate. Here are the pictures:

Early on a foggy morning, one artist in Steuben
is already thinking about coffee!

Morning hike in Grand Manan.

Road signs for arriving students.

Psyched to paint!!

Autumn: Busy doings...

SO, all summer I don't write a word, because, so I tell myself, I'm just too busy. Then comes autumn - and there is SO much to write about - because ... I'm even busier!!! (Does this strike a chord with you?) Kids are back in school, all the regular meetings and activities that we took a summer break from are now back in gear and revving up. Summer's gone, it's harvest time and garden food needs putting up as we enter the last quarter of 2014. Which means...

My 2015 12 Months in Maine calendar will be coming out soon!

Like last year, the calendar measures 8x8". Even better than last year, they cost only $10 each! (Plus tax where applicable.)

To order just send an email to mary.brooking@gmail.com. You can either copy and paste the liink into your email program, or click on the link to my website and the email link at the top of that page. You're welcome to leave a comment here, but sometimes I don't see them, so I don't recommend ordering that way. Anyway, sooner or later I'll need your email address.

After the calendars are printed I'll send you a PayPal invoice, or if you prefer, an address where you can mail your check.

Thanks to all who have ordered my calendars in the past, and who will in the future. You are some of my most important art patrons. I hope they bring a you whole year of colorful enjoyment. 

~m.

Monhegan!

OK, it was June. And yes, this is September. Busy summer!

One of the joys of my life lately is teaching painting. Last June I got brave and led my first retreat, in a big house I rented on Monhegan. It had to be Monhegan! Artists have been inspired here for over a hundred years.

Several of my students joined me for this adventure, but I came out by myself a day early to get settled into the house. It was a jewel of a day, crystal clear, warm and Monhegan-magical, and I was walking around almost in a daze - couldn't believe my luck, getting to work there all week.

That magic never ran out the whole time we were there.

Over the Top 8x8" acrylic on panel

Sunshine Yellow 6x6" acrylic on panel

Down to the Sea 6x6" acrylic on panel

So, next month (yes, October), several of us will be meeting for another painting retreat in beautiful Steuben, Maine. My son spent Labor Day weekend with a friend in Steuben. I'd never been there, but when I saw the photos I knew I wanted to go. Then, as I was arranging my next student retreat, I lucked out again - one of my students offered her family camp in Steuben as a venue!

I will not wait until the dead of winter to post photos. ;-)

Creative courage

Reflected Glory, 20x20"

The other day in the studio I was listening to a Public Radio article on creativity while I painted. I'm sorry I can't credit the producer or any of the sources referred to in the article - I was in my painting brain, weighing colors and shapes, hearing the broadcast resonated through my own thoughts and intuitions about what I was doing. What I heard was that many CEOs nowadays seek employees who are not what we used to call "company people." Instead they realize that people who think and perform in ways outside the norm tend to have the ideas needed to propel their company forward through fast-changing times and technologies. Creative people. These people, they find, make lots of mistakes.  Who would have thought 30 years ago that people who do things in unusual ways and make a lot of mistakes would now be prized as corporate employees? Turns out, it's people who are OK taking risks, even if it means making mistakes now and then, are the same ones who innovate the billion-dollar ideas. And these smart CEOs are giving these creative people the license to invent new ways and risk making some mistakes without fear of being fired for it - and this is paying off. Think Zuckerberg, if you will.

That's why it's so vital to fund arts education in schools: it provides our children with multiple alternative approaches to life's problems. Frees them to search other parts of their brains besides the logical left lobe to look for new ways, and to experiment until something works.

Here's the thing: until we let go of our fear of failing - until we risk making a mistake, losing our way, having a great idea turn into a mess of soggy paper and a night of lost sleep, we aren't free to access our full creative power. Fear turns creative passion to icy sludge.

And I thought: That's what I've been telling my students. Well, maybe not in so many words - but it was what I was trying to give them: permission to listen to their creative intuition, and to try. And to fail. And to try again.

We've all been there. What creative people do - what you do - when faced with a problem, is look fear in the eye - and rock on.