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.

Lobster Cove and the Wreck of the DT Sheridan

Sun! Sun! oh back to a vibrant palette....I happen to know (because I am privy to such juicy info) that Frank is considering using one of these below as a study, to paint a much larger version. Informal poll: which one do you think would be the best choice??

Looking to Lobster Cove Beach-oil on canvas. painting by Frank Bruckmann©
The Flotsam from the DT Sheridan-oil on canvas. painting by Frank Bruckmann©

Paintings are available for purchase.

Paintings with soft light and snow

This gang of 3 paintings show such softness, peace and quiet. I loved the quiet calm in February, and remember visiting Frank while he painted the gem below. Manana from all angles, with that little shack up top always reassures. So much color in a gray, cloudy sky.

From Deadman's Cove- oil on canvas. painting by Frank Bruckmann©

Different Angle, from Deadman's Cove-oil on canvas. painting by Frank Bruckmann©
Rocks upon entering the Harbor-oil on canvas. painting by Frank Bruckmann©

Paintings are available for purchase

Spring Break Highlights...

This was the day we had the scavenger hunt. I gave the kids a list of things they had to do or collect, and the first team (of 2 teams) back with proof of all the things, including candy wrappers from candy hidden in an infamous island tree, rubbings from the cemetery gravestones, photos of fishermen, etc, was the winner, and then both teams got to search for "treasure" we'd buried on Fish Beach.

Hurry, hurry! Racing to find the buried treasure.

Proof that they found a rooster..

Using the shovel from burying treasure, the gang spent the rest of the afternoon building elaborate ways to divert the water running off from the meadow into the harbor, barefoot (!)

The next day we woke up to this! A snow covered island and here the spring flowers out in front of Carina were in shock!

So then it got cooooollldddd! Chris, Megan and Diane Bruckmann came for a visit-all the way from NJ, and smiled as they landed on Monhegan for the first time, despite the snow and cold and we still managed to get out and about, had some lovely sunny but chilly hikes, ate really good food, including the Spanish-ish dinner Chris made with all the fixin's from his favorite Latin grocery store in Bridgewater, NJ.
The day we took the kids into Cathedral Woods to do a little service work, to rake and clear up the path, I finally took a pic of this lichen on the spruce trees. It's so wonderfully crusty.

Spring Break Is......

Monhegan School has a 2 week long Spring Break, which is perfect for those going off island for a vacation, but for us, and the other mother at the school, I knew we'd need to get creative, since we were staying right here. So, we are scheduling the mornings with something to get the kids going every day....

So far, Spring Break is.....

Tree climbing...

Snake catching, or rescuing this defenseless snake from the jaws of our cat, and putting it somewhere else...

taking a break in between games...

building a "bridge" with flotsam...

discovering new cool places to explore...

beachcombing, to find treasure...

witnessing how they deliver dirt to the Rock...(there were 3 fully loaded dumptrucks that were barged in from the mainland, where they drove onto the beach across that ramp, and then when emptied up by the schoolhouse, they drove back to Fish Beach, and BACKED up the ramp and onto the boat....

and finally, Spring Break is...spending way tooooooo much time with your little sister. Now into week two, if anyone has any other suggestions of what we can do with 4 kids on Monhegan, feel free to chime in! Actually, when the weather is right, we are taking them lobstering.

Winning Awards in New Haven

Frank entered this painting in the New Haven Paint & Clay Club's 109th Juried Annual Show, and we just heard it grabbed the 2nd Place Award. For those in New Haven this weekend, the opening is this Sunday, March 21st from 2-5pm. For more information click here.

Tidal Pool -oil on canvas 36 x 48" painting by Frank Bruckmann ©

Please click on image to enlarge.

Happy Birthday Frank, presents for everyone, kids clean up Lobster Cove

It was Frank's bday on 3/16 and so we regaled him with the finest of presents and cake and bday trimmings, but then he announced presents for US, and took us down to his studio, and there they were...3 paintings (in progress) of each of us, that he's been doing in secret! They are to be mementos from our Monhegan sojourn.

Arlo painted this tee shirt for Frank, it says "the War of Art" and he drew Frank as a warrior (what else does a 9 year old boy draw?) and for his weaponry, he has a brush and palette.

Day 2 of Spring Break: the kids collected ALL this trash from Lobster Cove and carted it back in Angela's truck...

Junked lobster traps, more trash and kids loving the spring weather and riding in the back.
South of the harbor.
myself and my girl