Small beauty, Propane Tanks in Limbo, tie-dye clothesline

Look at the brush and palette knife strokes below on this little beauty...and scroll down for more art and a bit of island "news"

That house near top of Horn Hill again. 6x8"oil painting by Frank Bruckmann©

Propane Tanks in Limbo (finished) 18x24" oil painting by Frank Bruckmann©

Intensely dyed tee shirts drying in the morning sun, just outside of the school house. These will be worn by all players (and scorekeepers) during the whole island kickball game, happening May 11th. The Monhegan School will host the event. Thor, get ready, we have thrown your name into the ring.

Paintings: Cribbage Tournament, Under Burnt Head, Sunset @ Fish Beach

Cribbage Tournament-oil painting by Frank Bruckmann©

The winter tradition of Cribbage in Sherm's Fish House. The tournament players and some artists crammed into the fish house and spent the afternoon doing their thing. This is the 2nd painting Frank painted, his first was a small quick study. He refined all that stuff in the background in this painting which brings it alive.....i'm sure this painting reminds many of you of Frank's Business Series from Westville.

Under Burnt Head-oil painting by Frank Bruckmann©

Sunset at Fish Beach-oil painting by Frank Bruckmann©

More Spring! Mexican Dinner NIght! Ole!

Spring has been lovely. Daytime temps can range from 40 degrees to 70, so we can't quite pack away cozy sweaters yet. Most of the splotches of color are from forsythia, dandelions, and daffodils...so yellow is the prominent accent to accompany the greening of every blade of grass and bush. Across the meadow, the straw colored clumps are giving way to green centers that will eventually take over. but for now, it is great to be here and observe the changes.

The Monhegan School is in full gear, providing tons of entertainment for us all, once again:

suited up and ready to serve

Jessie took this pic of the "locals hanging out at the cantina" aka virgin margarita bar.

She loved her painted on eyelashes...The boys had great mustaches too.
ummmm. taco bar toppings.

Prepping all day at school, in character with sombreros, and party shirts (on the "bartender"). The whole community came, paid $8.00 a piece, after we got presented the "bill", and of course we all tipped the staff, who are raising field trip money.

May Pole celebration! Beautiful afternoon on Horn Hill to celebrate a little girl who turned one year old yesterday, along with 3 other island birthdays (4 b-days on the same day, in a population of 53-now that is crazy)

round and round until everyone's noses were touching the pole!

The school kids are preparing for the annual community-wide kickball tournament. To prepare, we met yesterday to tie-dye printed tees. No vat dying anymore, it's all about squirting intense dye out of bottles onto t-shirts that have been wetted. More pics to follow....

Spring/Earth Day/Garden

Welcome to Spring on Monhegan.....

Spring! soft fuzzy light and yellow buds and blossoms-daffodils, dandelions and forsythia-and purple flowers mingling in the grass that smell of spearmint.

More visitors from New Haven! Terry Dagradi, Travis and Jim Martin made their debut on Monhegan for 2 absolutely sunny, warm and perfect days...we dragged them out for a 3 hour hike practically right off the boat and they not only enjoyed it, they loved it. Here we are on the grassy patch up high on the North side of Whitehead...then they participated fully in all the Earth Day events with the Monhegan School. Even picking up trash, (not what one usually does on vacation) playing kickball with the community, and an hour long "Lights Out" walk through town from 8-9pm. We imagined getting a gang together for a Full Moon Hike through Edgewood Park. It can happen. Someone call FOEP!

The kids are putting in a garden for lettuce and potatoes, in front of the school, and i came by to help pull out sod, rocks and turn soil with them.

Here it is, just about ready for the seedlings the kids started inside. Why, lettuce? Captain John Smith (in the late 1400's) landed on Monhegan and apparently, planted the first lettuce garden in New England. Our resident master gardener thought it'd make sense for the school kids to follow in tradition. The pole in the center of the garden says "May Peace Prevail on Earth" in many languages, a sculpture that was erected a few years ago.

And this cheerful little logo my girl put on her Earth Day T-shirt ... she explained she really wanted to draw a sun, but she was supposed to draw her "dream for the world" which was that "everyone on the earth had a house to live in"...so here she combined those two things. wasn't it Picasso who said he spend decades trying to draw like a child?

More propane tanks , Waves crashing over shipwreck

I want to show you another painting of island fuel tanks, and if you've ever been to Monhegan, you have passed these old tanks many a time, but I am sure you never thought to yourself, what a lovely thing to paint. but Frank did....

Fuel tank outside Elva's- 24 x 36" oil painting by Frank Bruckmann ©

click on image to enlarge

Waves crashing over the DT Sheridan 9" x 12" oil painting by Frank Bruckmann © click on image to enlarge

Party for kids and dogs

Our daughter wanted to have her 7th birthday with all the kids and all the dogs on Monhegan. kids=8, dogs=4 (the rest of the dogs were busy). we baked dog treats (never again, yecchh!).

at her request we baked a cornbread with nutella cake that was dog shaped....

and we made a pinata to look like her teacher's dog, Maya, which the kids destroyed in no time.

sporting some new pretty hair clips, a beaded necklace and a felted wool hair twisty from island friends....a great way to celebrate 7.