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Dear Friends,

I am pleased to invite you to a show of my recent paintings!  Brad Ryder of Epic Sports offered to display my paintings of Baxter Park, Monhegan Island, the coast of Maine, and the Bog Boardwalk in his store at 6 Central St in downtown Bangor.  The show, which I hung today, will be up until August 22.  Please stop by and have a look.  If you enjoy what you see, leave a note in the guest book.  Epic Sports is open Monday-Saturday 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM and on Sunday 10:00-5:00.

As many friends and family know, it has been a long and joyous journey for me from retirement, through refining my drawing and painting skills, to the present, a stopping place in which I can show my work to others.  I am very thankful to the folks at Epic Sports for their generous offer of space.  I am also thankful to the various teachers and colleagues who have shared this journey with me as friends, as guides, and as marvelous artists.

I hope you will take a few minutes and stop in to see my work.  It is exciting for me to write this invitation to you and to see my work displayed in a space where people shop for things which will take them to the places where I painted!

If paintings sell, a percent of the sale price will be donated to the Orono Bog Boardwalk to support the replacement of the Boardwalk.

Thanks for your interest.

Kay Carter

Field House on Monhegan Island was home to seven artists this past week.  I was the newest to the island, having never been there.  What a treat!  A week of drawing and painting along with others, eating marvelous food, and hiking trails and headlands, luscious with color, wind, mud, and rain.  Rick Charette's song, "Mud, mud, I love mud.." seemed appropriate for the days!

The Monhegan Island collection on my web site (WWW.KayCarterPaints.com) includes paintings from the week - two of Gull Rock, a large headland which reaches out into the ocean, one from Calf Cove, and one completed while looking out the window of Feild House toward Manana Island, watching the rain threaten and then envelop the day.  Clyde the gull kept me company as I painted that day!

I invite you to take a look at the Monhegan paintings and let me know what you think.  (Write a note under the heading 'Contact the Artist'.)  I would love to hear from you.

Say the name Baxter State Park to most anyone from Maine or New England and you will hear a story of attempts to climb Mt Katahdin, camping trips to Russell Pond, or winter excursions into Daicey or Kidney Ponds.  If you love the park as I do, please consider supporting Brush Strokes for Botany.  Friends of Baxter Park is raising funds to complete an inventory of the vegetation in the park and to publish a guide book of the vegetation for folks who visit the park to enjoy.

Fifteen artists from Maine are committed to this effort.  Each artist has donated one painting to be auctioned off in an on-line auction.  The auction continues thru next Wednesday, July 24.  Proceeds from the auction will help support this effort.  I am pleased to be part of this effort with a painting I completed at Abol Bridge on a cold day in February this year.  To see all the paintings and bid on one or more go to:  http://www.32auctions.com/brushstrokesforbotany

Next Wednesday the same artists will gather for a ‘paint-out’ of the Kenduskeag Stream, followed by a wet paint auction of the paintings created that day.  I just returned from a walk along the stream looking for places to paint.  It will be great fun next Wednesday celebrating the beautiful stream which flows thru Bangor, and the long connection between Bangor and Mt Katahdin.  For more information about Brush Strokes for Botany and the activities celebrating Governor Baxter Day in Bangor, go to:  www.friendsofbaxter.org

And if you have a moment next Wednesday, stop by the Kenduskeag Park to see the paintings as they are created.

The gardener’s spring season of nurturing seedlings, stopping at greenhouses to see what new flowers they offer, and tucking little plants into the ground with a prayer and hopes for fall harvest is drawing to an end in Maine.  Summer growing season has taken hold.  One of my favorite greenhouses is Always Green, located on Rt 1A in Winterport.  Driving past it recently I noticed a cacophony of color seeping out the doors and windows and reaching under the rolled up plastic sides.  The resident flowering plants continued to celebrate. 

I went there to paint today.  After the rain of too many days, it felt wonderful to be outside, surrounded by color and paint, sun and earth.   The result of today’s effort is this study.  I hope you enjoy it as I enjoyed creating it.