Whoopie! New art by Me and The Novelty is now Open!

"Muffy's Room"(my cottage business of funky art for kids' rooms=muffysroom.com) merges with monhegan above, with tillie the cat down at the beach. the "friends of monhegan school" are raising money for the school thru donated art from local artists which will be auctioned off at the Carina.
the lupine meadow.....blooming weeks early

but the big news around town today...and this is a big deal when you have not had a choice of going out to eat for many months....the kids' got pizza AND ice cream for lunch. but not just any pizza and ice cream, really really good stuff from the novelty, dangerously located right at the bottom of the hill from our house...

Sue and Tobey welcomed the islanders and many visitors...with 3 flavors of whoopie pies that sue started to bake at 4am this morning and i spied pecan squares and lemon bars. they are smiling even though they don't know yet about the ferry that just unloaded 75 middle schoolers! hope they all went in for ice cream...

Quintessential Spring

Kids' bikes came back with us from New Haven.... which has done so much for their spirits, and mine too. seeing them zoom thru town, with playing cards rigged up to make that tick-a-tick-a-tick-a sound.

go Jorgie... get up that hill!

the Stahl's house with an amazing mantle of that flower who's unfortunate name sounds like chlamydia.

Gull Pond swim

SWIMMING IN GULL POND-spring is the only time you can swim here, b/c it is still cool enough that the algae growth isn't out of control and there isn't too much gull poop yet...

should i go in???

teasing arlo to come into the water...
10 seconds later, we were all in...even me.
algae flinging war!

Landscape with Jorgie

i was very happy that jorgie took over this painting i started. also to come... i will post the oil paintings the kids made under the tutelage of Frank...

Kid-Built Raft from Flotsam

the second the weather warmed up, the kids declared it was warm enough for swimming, or better, launching the raft they built on their own during "break" time at school.

here they are, hitching a ride from a lobsterman from the school to the beach

success!

trouble with steering....the kids started drifting off
giving a little help to the wayward raft. have i mentioned how much i love these experiences that our kids are having???????

Bogdonave Cottage-revised

Frank finished this piece, and I love the muddy wheel ruts and the snow, leading up Horn Hill to the Bogdonave Cottage, just lit above the tree line.

Bogdonave Cottage 18x26" oil painting by Frank Bruckmann©

My view of these three, watching the "three stooges" coincidence?

ME-CT-PA and back

Road trip highlights....from our last week in transit.

family wedding in reading, PA. nephew josh and his bride denise make such a lovely couple....

"the play" that our girl and her friends in new haven decided to create

3 generations getting pedicures- taking a picture into the mirror, now that's a fresh idea...

my mom and her newish pup "luc" around her pool. we will miss these days, around the pool, as my mom will be moving to her new home soon...

laying in a field (or an unmowed lawn at the intersection of central and edgewood aves.)

headed back to monhegan....on the ferry

New Haven Edition: Frank wins a fellowship grant from the CT Commission for the Arts, and paintings adorn Smilow Cancer Center

Frank was awarded an FY10 fellowship from The Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism !!!!

He received the grant to support his "continuing artistic development and creation of new work." Specifically, Frank plans to continue painting the series I mention below...

Last week we went home to New Haven for a quick visit...besides seeing our friends and drinking great coffee, we bee-lined it to the brand new $467 million Smilow Cancer Center downtown to view Frank's Occupational Spirit, the series he painted of mom-and-pop store owners that rule the Westville section of New Haven, where we have lived for 12 years.

This pic is taken from the glass bridge/walkway over York Street that connects the cancer hospital to the other parts of the Yale/New Haven hospital.

These paintings adorn the 4th floor corridor, there are 10 of Frank's paintings on display, probably through the fall, and we were very impressed with how well they looked, this is not your typical garish fluorescent hospital lighting... Apparently, art was a serious objective when they built this facility.

This lovely painting, (of Paulette arranging a mannequin in her store window at Simonae) is hung at the end of a very long hallway and is now part of the Smilow permanent collection! Yea, Frank!

If you are not yet familiar with this body of work, please take a look at the Business section on Frank's website...

Frank Teaches the Monhegan School how to Paint

It was a gorgeous sunny and windy day, perfect weather for an outdoor art class at the Monhegan School.

Frank set up his easel, and gave the kids a few pointers to consider while painting, but mostly, we all just watched and saw a painting come alive.

with just a few quick strokes that seemed random and haphazard, but were in actuality, masterfully laid in, Frank began the sketch....

Here, Frank instructs us all to "step back" to see the painting from afar, to make sure it is composed and coming along correctly.

Painting really coming along...and yes, he did add in the tie-dye shirts drying on the clotheslines, to which the teacher gave an audible silent cheer...

the dogs posing like they wanted to be painted in

Demo over....oh, let's just go climb a tree.

oh, and earlier i wanted to do a quick sketch of the harbor, but someone kept getting in my way....that's Tillie and she'll follow you anywhere.

kites, cats, lots of girl time

Spent loads of time with my girl last weekend. The guys went "inshore" and we plotted a weekend that included watching Pippi Longstocking, having a tea party with a couple other "girls", painting toenails while having breakfast outside on the porch, walking, talking and singing camp songs.

The illusive "Rocky". As his owner says, "such a specimen".

Kite flight at sunset tonight

after the sun went down, ready to launch the kite again....