Scallops are a true New England treat–their very shape is an iconic reminder of beachside fun and shell-hunting summer afternoons. Their real gift, however, is delivered when our waters begin to chill down, for what lies snugly between those grooved, hinged shells is a faintly sweet, buttery nugget with a mild tree-nut flavor. Perhaps the […]
Back in the 1950s, three artists lived in a building on 28th St. in New York City. Bernard “Blackie” Langlais lived and worked on the top floor. Alex Katz had a studio on the second floor. And Charles DuBack lived on the first floor above the street level lumberyard below. All three men attended the […]
The debut of Evolution of a Shared Vision: The David and Barbara Stahl Collection at the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, New Hampshire (September 26 to January 3, 2010) reminds me of the Temple Beth-El art shows in Portland, Maine, in the 1960s. Before there was a contemporary art scene in Portland there were […]
Since 1990, artist Connie Hayes has been painting landscapes, still-lifes and interiors in and around houses where she has stayed as a houseguest, methodically borrowing the homes of friends and friends of friends in order search out new subject matter. In 2004, Hayes documented her peripatetic paintings in Painting Maine: The Borrowed Views of Connie […]
Someone from, say, Kansas might laugh at the notion, but there was a time when Vermont merited the nickname “breadbasket of America.” During the 19th century, farms around New England devoted significant acreage to wheat; in the 1850s, Vermont alone boasted about 40,000 acres of wheat-growing land. However, as transporting grain from the Midwest became […]
When the Hallee family moved into their 1950s Cape Cod house in Portland, Maine, the lack of storage space was an issue that needed to be addressed. Ken; his wife, Lisa; and their young daughter, Emma, live in a cozy two-bedroom home where “storage has always been an issue,” Ken says, and no more so […]
1. Help save quarters and energy with an easy-to-store clothes-drying rack ($39.95-$49.95). The Vermont Country Store Rutland, VT 802-362-8460 vermontcountrystore.com 2. Roommates will covet Le FP’s 98-percent organic shampoo ($16 for 8 ounces) and 92-percent organic conditioner ($18 for 8 ounces). Le FP Green Body Care Peterborough, NH 603-924-7444 lefpgreenbodycare.com 3. The handles of these […]
I guess I must have missed Alan Gussow. Though he painted on Monhegan Island from 1949 until his death in 1997 and I have written about art in Maine since 1978, I’ve never seen a major Gussow show. Apparently, there was a ten-year retrospective at the Portland Museum of Art back in 1970, the year […]
Art galleries tend to come and go with the economy. When I first started looking at contemporary art in the 1960s, there was only one serious art gallery in Portland, Maine -Frost Gully Gallery, which eventually returned to Freeport from whence it came. By 1987, at the height of the 1980s boom, there were more […]
Excerpt from “This New England: Mount Desert Island, Maine,” Yankee Magazine, August 1981. When Samuel De Champlain named Mount Desert Island, he did so because he was so struck by the barren, deserted summits of the stretch of mountains that give the island its soft, rounded profile. Though the mountains’ summits remain deserted, the island […]
Real Art Ways, an alternative arts space founded in Hartford, Connecticut in 1975, is one of New England’s liveliest contemporary arts venues, like Space in Portland, Maine, and AS220 in Providence, Rhode Island, presenting a heady mix of fine and performing arts. This summer, Real Art Ways has commissioned four works of public art for […]
An asterisk (*) designates tower or house interior open for tours. The grounds of many other lighthouses (though not all) are open to visitors. Call or visit website for seasonal schedules and admission fees. MAINE Cape Elizabeth Light Cape Elizabeth 207-594-4174 lighthousefoundation.org maine.gov/doc/parks Portland Head Light* Fort Williams Park Cape Elizabeth 207-799-2661 portlandheadlight.comGet Our FREE […]
