Broomball and bagels

My first culinary feat this year...homemade bagels. even the ugly ones taste great.

A few creatures, great and small, met on the Ice Pond after lunchtime to play "broomball". you wear boots (not skates), use regular household brooms and a soccer ball. knee pads and snowpants recommended to pad your fall. oh yes, you will fall.

look in the background and you'll see an easel, an artist painting the scene. how could she paint us with our quicksilver speed? or capture our grace?

don't you love the moms that bring the hot chocolate and brownies for all?

First Time Painting Workshop on Monhegan!

Usually he keeps Monhegan to himself, but this summer join Frank for his first painting workshop on Monhegan...

Come and Paint Monhegan Island

with Instructor Frank Bruckmann

June 12-19th, 2010

$450 for the 6-day workshop includes the following: Saturday night welcome reception,

Tuesday night critique with wine and cheese, Friday night farewell dinner and final critique.

Daily schedule: for Sunday thru Friday

•Morning Session: 3-hour instructional with Frank

•Lunch break on your own, or with others

•Afternoon painting session: you can choose to paint alongside Frank as he paints a landscape, or paint elsewhere, explore the island, etc.

•3 of the evenings, we will have something planned,(see above) but on the "off" nights you can decide what to do on your own or with others.

Students are responsible for their own Accommodations and Transportation, please

click here for more information.

Return to painting

Look below at the painting of Manana, all lit up, peeking out behind a few frozen tidepools on the way out to Pebble Beach....

Frozen Tidepools, Looking at Manana- 9 x12 by Frank Bruckmann ©

Frank is back on island, the kids are back in school, and I should be outside in this sunny and clear and brisk weather... a quick post with paintings Frank had completed last week.

Sun Glowing through a Gray Sky (over Burnt Head)- 9x12 painting by Frank Bruckmann©

Snowman Building Day near Gull Rock- 12x16-painting by Frank Bruckmann©

Be sure to click on the images, to make them bigger!

Here are some of the differences...

With Frank in CT this week, readying the house for a subletter, I have no art to post, so instead you can suffer thru my observations...here are a few examples of how things are different, living up here on Monhegan...

What is living in my crisper....

The view beyond the monitor....

For whom we compost...

New friends + dogs+ daily hikes.

That's it for now, more art next week, but here is something poetic....the kids at the schoolhouse wrote poetry from photographs they took on a hike last week....check out the monhegan school blog

Bingo night at the Monhegan School

We'd only heard about monthly Bingo night at the Monhegan School. Last night we arrived and the classroom was transformed-the Bingo banner hung, furniture all rearranged, snacks and refreshments had been prepared by the kids, each had their part in presenting the evenings events, and the room was filled with about 20 Monheganites ready to give it all they got with some seasoned players handling several cards at a time... Bingo cards cost $1 a piece, and all the money went to relief efforts in Haiti.

A bingo enthusiast!

The class' "to do" list

The kids take turns calling numbers....all very cozy and a bit kitschy, but i like it that way.

And a couple pics from a long walk with Frank to the back side of the island.
very cool freezing pattern down at Gull Pond
Looking for more compositions to paint...a monocular and a chapeau....so "Frank"

More! Snow on Monhegan

We set out to snowshoe this morning after sledding the kids to school. Everything was just clumped with snow.

across the meadow
snowshoeing out to the backside
kids sledding to school...how cool is that?

At the end of the school day when the teachers thought the snow would hamper their "camera hike", they went sledding instead, and all were invited...the kids created a derby format, whomever made it the farthest down the slope, without getting knocked over was the winner.

New paintings and Extreme sledding!

A few new paintings, these are a bit larger, they range in size from 11x14 to 16x20...he is really getting a hang for painting these winter scenes, i would say. And then, scroll down to the bottom for some excellent sledding footage!

Below: See Frank crash and burn!

Snow Day!!

We woke up to this! and, it was a school holiday! and we found 3 sleds at the house, and a sled dog to come along with us! we spent 3 hours on the hill, which is called Horn Hill, and the route we walk into town daily, and the way the kids go to school, became the hub, as about half the island residents showed up to sled, snowboard or watch.
looking across the harbor from Fish Beach, and onto Manana.
The starting gate: our family and our friend and her dog, the best snow dog in the world. we tried to reacquaint him with his instincts, to remind him how to mush by harnessing him to a kid on a sled, which he did!

You know when the snow has melted and it is snow cone perfect? Today the sun was shining so warmly on the backside that Frank painted for a couple of hours before we met him with rations and we picnicked (in January! in ME!) to start off a long afternoon outside...

then a snowball fight ensued...

Frank dropped his easel(literally) to photograph the surf, which was churning and exhibiting gorgeous aqua shades where the sun shone through

Then I went off and played poker with the women of monhegan...what a crew...i merely broke even.

A Balmy Friday

Pictures from around town, yesterday and today. It is warmer and softer outside, but the surf kicked up. SO different from yesterday's dead calm water and crisp air.

soft morning sun on Manana, viewed while walking the kids to school.

quick sketch from my new journal, a gift from the wonderful Maddie Dagradi of New Haven, a woman who has been creating and teaching for most of her numerous years...

after school, down the "sliding board"

in Cathedral Woods yesterday, see how the light cuts thru the trees, bouncing on the snow. note Frank in his muck boots. muck boots,oh how we LOVE thee...NEVER have my toes stayed so warm.

the big one that did NOT get away!

NEW PAINTINGS, FRANK BRUCKMANN-MONHEGAN IN WINTER

this tree always "gets" me when we are hiking to the north end of the island. so many pictures i've taken, picnics eaten nearby, canvasses painted while my babies were snoozin'...but here it is rendered in oil paint, and i like that...

towards pebble beach, 9x12 oil on board- © frank bruckmann

icy tide pool (manana in background) 9 x 12-© frank bruckmann

atop burnt head, 9 x 12- © frank bruckmann

all paintings are for sale, prices given on request.

Little Adjustments

here is the view of the most popular part of the house...looking into the kitchen and LR which are both upstairs. there is a deck beyond, and a glorious view of Manana, and the harbor which is too vast to capture.
a favorite place of ours in the summer, this brackish pond on the backside is frozen solid, and i love the winter light shooting across.
how we shop....i fill out a form, hand it in with a blank signed check, and at the end of next week it all comes in on the boat, and then we all gather and sort groceries. (aren't you glad you can just run to the grocery store on your own?)
this is a much better kitchen for baking cookies, the view makes everything taste better.

ONE WEEK IN...

family arrives

First week: leaving our native New Haven, CT behind, and settling into a lovely home that overlooks the harbor and the Atlantic Ocean to the ME coastline...introducing the kids to their new island school, 2 teachers, 2 dogs.

running to school, 1st day

under the welcome banner

...back at home, plopping into the HUGE beanbag chair with the kids to watch the sunset from our living room...the evening visit from a neighbor and her infant son with lobster and seahorse shaped cookies, followed by her fisherman husband darkening our doorstep (if you've ever seen this guy, you'd understand)bearing a milk crate loaded with the real crustaceans, with a booming, "Welcome to the neighborhood!"...a hike out to Pebble Beach on the north side of the island where a "bunch" (gaggle? pod? school?) of seals swam in to check us out...the setting up of our "account" at the grocery store, which consisted of saying hello to the proprietress. When she is not there we write down the groceries we've taken on the legal pad provided, and pay the tab at the end of each month.

schoolhouse -end of day

hiking on the backside

winter light

Frank is finding his groove and having NO problem finding paintable subject matter. We've been walking the kids to school (when they allow us) and then hiking for inspiration. He has painted with other island artists,decked out in extra warm clothes!

up the road to our house-9 x 12" by frank bruckmann©