A Painting from Maine

In lieu of a proper blog post about my east coast trip (soon),

I wanted to share a beautiful painting we bought in Maine:

"Offshore Fog at Thrumcap" by Bryan Scott Whitehead

We purchased the painting at the Argosy Gallery in downtown Bar Harbor, Maine (there are two storefronts, in fact, the Argosy and Argosy II, a few short blocks away).  

The gallery has a stunning collection of paintings, mostly by local Maine artists, or by other American artists who come to Maine to paint its picturesque landscapes and seascapes.

The gallery is run by Amy Stapleton Sidman and her husband Charlie, who was so kind and generous, sharing information about his wife's beautifully curated collection and the various artists they represent.  

Here are a couple of photos from inside the Main Street shop:

The small painting I bought can be seen on the wall above 

You must visit the Argosy if you're ever in Bar Harbor.  Their collection is really quite extraordinary and each piece is so beautifully framed.  I coveted far too many!

But several that caught my eye were from Bryan Scott Whitehead, an Ohio-born artist who now resides in Poland but regularly visits and resides in Maine to paint.  

Check out his website here.

His painting of Thrumcap Island is a lovely addition to my collection (I have many other seascapes and landscapes).  Its quiet and loneliness really spoke to me.  

And it looks so good sitting on the sideboard, I don't want to hang it.

A Party & A Painting

Today we prepared most of the day to host a Mother's Day get-together tomorrow!

We're having an afternoon tea!

Today we made ingredients for various dainty tea sandwiches and I made chocolate cupcakes and a lemon cake will follow tomorrow.  We'll also have salads, tea and coffee.

(My favorite part of parties is the decorating, if you didn't notice). 

I'm sending this arrangement home with my mother-in-law.  The darling vase is actually a small hurricane (candle holder) I picked up today at Crate & Barrel:

I bought very posh paper for her gift.  Mothers deserve to be spoiled. 

I have a few favorite vases, including this large urn and the small crystal vase (that I bought at Rob Kurkut's gorgeous shop) which is brilliant for left over short stems:

I think pink is very festive for parties.

In other news, I have taken up painting:

A small abstract painting I made today

I took a full year of art in university but have not put medium to paper in 20 years.  It felt really good sitting down at a blank canvas again - I loved it.  I will share more paintings soon and tell you more about my previous art studies.

You can also see another of my paintings in the first photograph at the top of this post (hanging to the left of the mirror).

And most of all...

Happy Mother's Day

(especially to my beloved and most cherished Mom!)

xo Terri