A Painting Residency on Great Cranberry Island

October 20, 2016 Monica Chau

Poster for our slide talks during the first week of the residency

I spent the month of September on Great Cranberry Island as a resident at the Heliker-LaHotan Foundation. John Heliker and Robert LaHotan lived and painted on the island during the latter part of the 20 ^th Century and left their home and studios, located on The Pool, as a place for artists to live and work every summer.

The La-Hotan Studio

I shared a house with two other artists, painted in the La-Hotan Studio, and rode a bike (for the first time in years) to explore the numerous beaches and sites on the two and a half mile island off the coast of Mount Desert Island. Every day, the entire day was mine for exploring, selecting, and responding. This freedom imposed the burden to choose well and to focus on ideas that would lead to compelling work. As the three of us sat at breakfast each morning, we enjoyed the calm of each other’s company until the decision had to be made – how to use this day?

After initial exploration, I settled into favorite spots. Long Point on the north side of the island provided views of Acadia to the north and The Pool to the south.

Painting in progress on the north beach.

Painting in progress at Long Point

September Light, Toward Fish Point, 16x20, oil

Fish Point from the Shore at Long Point, 24x24, oil on canvas, 2016

The Big View at the south end of the island looked across fields and multiple bodies of water toward Acadia National Park. It's a popular painting spot, and I had to take my turn.

Painting in progress

24x30, oil on canvas

I loved the beach at Birlem Cove on the Back Shore, with its chaotic combination of jagged basalt and smooth, rounded pink granite boulders.

Back Shore beach

The Beach at Birlem Cove, 11x14, graphite

Drawings and paintings of the Back Shore and other sites

Painting in progress on the Back Shore

I also worked from the comfort of my studio, where there was always something dynamic going on with shifting light and tide outside my windows or along the beach out front.

The Pool from the LaHotan Studio

Unsettled, 11x14, oil on paper

Painting fog from the studio

Breaking Through, 12x12, oil on canvas, 2016

Morning Fog, 11x14, oil on canvas

Shore Along the Pool, 24x24, oil, 2016

Open Studio on the last day of the residency

The light of this visually rich environment was varied and magical, providing continuous presence of painting possibilities. I began a series of paintings, a response to the shifting light and color that surrounded me, and completed more than thirty-five drawings, a short-hand gestural record of my daily explorations. Now, in my studio at home, I observe the paintings again, seeing them on their own, disassociated from the place I observed and enjoyed. Some require revision. I make decisions and resolve not to overwork, and to retain the visual concepts and sense of place that prompted them.

I feel tremendous gratitude to the Heliker-LaHotan Foundation for this gift of time and place.

Sunrise on The Pool at the end of The Lane, the road where I lived for the month.