Many of us who have gone to public school in New England are forever stuck with the idea that summer is supposed to be a time of freedom and fun. In an effort to add some fun and freedom to my summer despite long ago leaving school, I decided to fill a small sketchbook this summer. The rules are simple. I have to not care about how it comes out. All paper is cheap, considering that it is grown in trees and shipped across oceans, but sketchbook paper is considerably cheape

We have had too much death recently. Each death takes a considerable amount of dealing with and when they stack up on each other, another one coming before the worst edge is off the last one, life gets overwhelming. We have had four with a fifth in the offing. Painting helps, but some days, just focusing on doing the dishes and walking the dog helps more. Nancy Gorman

It was a short one, but had more impact than the longer one earlier this winter. The long one lasted a few days and brought more snow, but my husband wasn't stuck in Florida for that one. Having cancelled his trip to visit his mother during the first blizzard, he didn't want to upset her by cancelling for a blizzard again. She's 96. So he brought in a pile of wood for me, made sure I remembered how to use the battery pack we'd retrieved from the boat for the first blizzard, a

We made it home from our sailing vacation but the last bit was a challenge. The engine broke so we had to sail from Cape Elizabeth home, which isn't a problem in nice weather, but it wasn't - lumpy 4' following seas, winds light and variable. It turned out we could have just waited but the prediction was for the seas to continue to rise and the wind to shift to dead on our nose so we would have to tack (zigzag) upwind. We aren't as young as we were so we tried to play it safe

Despite crashing into the trip with the bare minimum of preparation, it's been great so far. Mostly that's been due to the phenomenal...

Made it aboard, despite various family problems that had to be dealt with. Loading up without my parents' house and dock and driveway was...

New plan - don't waste the cows! Yesterday, I attended my first plein air event. I paint en plein air all summer, but I have never done...

One of the art associations I belong to is the New England Watercolor Society. Their gallery in Plymouth is a bit of a trek. We don't...

I belong to several art associations. These provide me with friends, knowledge, a way to contribute to my community, and a place to show...

The last of the ice on the lake broke up yesterday and it's finally warm enough to paint without freezing! We took our first plein air...

This is a library - generations of cherished books. It is a poor substitute for my parents' warm home, with its bright sea light and...

I am making tiny cards for my sister for Christmas. I make these most years. I cut up watercolour paper into little gift cards, paint...

I have spent a miserable fall breaking up my mother's house. We moved her garden to the best location we had, but who knows how much of...

Hurricane Eduardo, happily, passed well out to sea for us, but we couldn't be entirely sure about that, and even well out to sea, we were...

Still sailing amongst the Maine islands! Still painting them! We spent the remnants of Hurricane Eduardo in Northeast Harbor, on Mt....

We are slowly poking our way up the coast of Maine, painting as we go. We keep finding idyllic little islands to take the dinghy to. Just...

The remnants of hurricane Debby came with enough uncertainty, wind, and sea that we decided we'd be more comfortable on a mooring instead...

This is my favourite place in the universe and the high point of my year is visiting here every summer. We took picnic lunches ashore,...

We're loading the boat for the August cruise to Maine and I've filled all the lockers and this is leftover. Now what? I reall do want...

This is awful. I spent spring and the first bit of summer painting, preferably from our dock or the canoe. My mum died in April and...