Hello, friends.  Like the meadow voles and flocks of robins in the yard this week, I'm beginning to take a decided interest in the imminent spring.  How welcome it is; what a long year it's been.  Working outside when I could and painting in my studio when I couldn't has carried me through, so far.  I'll be glad to see the pandemic go, whenever it does go.  Over the winter, I've been staying close to home and keeping safe.  Right now I'm working on framing paintings for my upcoming solo show with Landing Gallery in Rockland.  In mid-May I'll bring around fifty paintings to the gallery, and the show will be up around June 1st, for the month of June.  A catalogue is in the works and if anyone would like to receive a pdf of it in May, or photos of the paintings in the show, I will be ready to provide such things probably by the first week of May, if not the second week.  The gallery will have paper copies of the catalogue, too.  The show is called Local Color: an almanac of Maine painting and will feature mostly small works made over the last two years, as the seasons changed, one to the next.  There's some snow, some fall color, some June flowers, some wintery shorelines, some hot summer sun, some fog, and some of the new growth of spring.  Being out in nature throughout the year remains my joy.  Here's one of the paintings from the show - harvest moon, white pines, Stockton Springs, Maine - oil/panel, 8 x 10":  

I will also be showing paintings again this year with Littlefield Gallery in Winter Harbor.  They keep some of my available work up throughout the year, and on my page on their website, then around fifteen paintings of mine will be in a group show in the gallery in mid-September into October.  I feel very fortunate to be represented by two such wonderful galleries, in two different parts of the state I love so very much.

Thank you to friends and collectors who purchased paintings last year.  2020 was a banner year in that regard, and the extra funds allowed me to complete phase one of my studio renovation, in the little old cape house across the street from where my husband Ryan and I live.  We bought the cape several years ago, gutted it completely, down to the hand-hewn beams, and it now has a new roof.  Phase two will follow later this year, if all goes well.  I appreciate the support and interest more than you will ever know.

I will write again with more news before summer, since I also spent much of the winter finishing the book I've been working on, about painting on Bear Island, in Penobscot Bay.  The book itself is done, and now I'm doing some final housekeeping chores related to it.  I hope to self-publish copies in July.  Please stay tuned for more news about that, keep an eye out for crocuses - any day now! - and take care, in the months ahead.

I know it's not quite fall yet, but the loud crickets say otherwise, as does the waning light.  The end of summer finds me painting nearby, here and there, and working on my memoir about a decade of painting weeks on Bear Island, in Penobscot Bay.  It's coming along, and I hope to call it done sometime soon.  Meanwhile, an unexpected opportunity has arisen.  Two years ago I applied for a residency at Monson Arts, to draw and paint in the woods and around the mountains, lakes, and rivers of northwestern Maine.  I was not accepted but was put on a waiting list, and managed to accomplish some of what I'd hoped to do, on my own.  But now it seems my time has come, because I was asked to fill in at short notice, since someone else can't make it to the next residency.

At first I thought, No, it's a pandemic, I can't go anywhere or do anything, but after talking it over with Ryan and the program director, I came to my senses.  I'll be as safe as possible, with my own house and studio, take-out meals, and distance from the other residents.  In short, I'll be in even more solitude than I currently am.  Which is conducive to painting, to say the least.  The bottom line is this: if I didn't go, I'd be home, anxiety-laden, wishing I was painting the mountains.  So I'll go paint the mountains!  I leave in a few days, and will be at the residency for about a month, with a brief break in the middle for a visit back at home to be on hand for some construction we had already scheduled.  The break will also give me a chance to pick up any more supplies I might need, along with cold-weather clothing.  Of course I will also want to hug my husband, and Hodge the cat, who already suspects that I'm going away and is unpleased.  I'm hoping for weeks of good weather, so I can be out painting as much as possible, and Hodge can sleep in warm sun-patches until I return home, and it's woodstove season once again.

Wish me luck!  I've stretched canvases and gessoed them, and sanded and gessoed panels, and am packing my supplies: new brushes, lots of paint, my watercolor kit too, and diary.  I'll be busy, I know, but I would also welcome some quiet time in the woods, doing not much of anything except looking, listening, and just being.  Stay well, friends, talk with you when I return.  

downstream, barrows falls, monson, maine - oil/panel, 8 x 10", 2018.

We are in the thick of it here in Maine, with high heat and humidity.  The bright fresh greens of June and early July are wilting and taking on tinges of ochre.  Dandelions, daisies, and hawkweed have gone by.  Queen Anne's lace and black-eyed Susans and daylilies are blooming.  I'm already looking forward to fall, and sweaters, and firewood.  Not to mention voting.  The ongoing pandemic has meant that my usual annual painting activities have changed.  I've stayed closer to home this summer, and haven't ventured out to the islands I usually go to, to paint alone and with friends.  I miss them terribly (the islands and friends both) but continue to feel fortunate to live where I do.  A mile down the street is a big open field, mercifully unbuilt upon, with a view out to sea, and I set up by the side of the road and paint there, in fog and heat both.  I'll keep painting that view as the weather turns to fall and then winter.  I'm planning another solo show with Landing Gallery in Rockland, for the spring of 2021, about the seasons and the rewards of close observation of them.  I will also be showing more work about Schoodic and Mount Desert Island with Littlefield Gallery in Winter Harbor, in 2021.  Both galleries continue to keep some of my work up on the walls right now, and both are open to the public most days, with safety precautions, or by appointment when solitary art-viewing is preferrable.  Thank you to everyone who saw the shows this year, virtually and in person, and bought work too.  I appreciate it so very much.

One more item of note about summer doings around here: the annual August art exhibit at the Blue Hill Public Library is happening soon, and three small paintings of mine are included.  This show is curated by Marcia Stremlau and Jennifer Mitchell-Nevin, and they select work from local painters, sculptors, and potters.  I'm so pleased to be participating again this year.  Here's one of the paintings I just dropped off with Jennifer a few days ago:  

​September by the falls bridge, Blue Hill, Maine - oil/panel, 9 x 12", 2019.  There are those early fall colors I'm starting to notice already in the trees.  The show will be up on August 1st.  Proceeds from art sales are split between the library and the artists, a win-win for the enire community.  Thanks for reading, stay safe, and be well!   

Hi friends and painting enthusiasts.  Wishing you all well.  What a time.  My husband Ryan and I have been staying home for five weeks, going on six.  He does his work remotely now, as do so many others, with his phone, the internet, and teleconferencing.  I'm working as usual, even though everything is different, and I'm not finding it easy to focus on painting, or much else beyond small everyday activities and projects.  In other words, we take it day by day around here.  We are very fortunate to live where we do, on a quiet residential street, with wonderful neighbors, in a small village, on the gorgeous coast of Maine.  The ocean is visible from our house (we live halfway up a hill that faces south, down Penobscot Bay), and we often walk the mile it takes to be standing right by its side.   We take longer walks too, all around town.  Sometimes we pack a lunch or snacks, and last weekend I even took my watercolor kit and did some sketching.  Spring is slowly budding, here.  No leaves are out yet, but the grass is rapidly greening.  I've been digging up the garden beds and thinking of transplanting and planting.  We already have chives and other herbs showing vigorous signs of life.  And I am trying to do likewise, by preparing for my summer painting show season, even though so much remains unknown at this time. 

Here is what I do know.  My upcoming solo show at Landing Gallery in Rockland will happen either in the gallery itself, or virtually.  I have 55 paintings framed and ready for At Sea: new paintings of the Maine coast, and will have the catalogue in hand in a few weeks, if all goes well.  A few paintings from the show are already spoken for (wow, thank you!!), but the majority remain available.  If you would like a preview, just ask, and I will be happy to send you a file of photographs of the paintings, and the price list.  The gallery will have the paintings in mid-May or shortly thereafter, if the Maine stay-safe-at-home order is lifted by then.  

Also, as I mentioned previously, Littlefield Gallery now has paintings of mine, for inclusion in a group show in late June and July.  Again, several paintings have already sold (and again, wow, thank you!!), but many are shown on their website on my artist page, and are currently available.  They will probably have a virtual show only, but that is still to be determined, depending on how the state safety recommendations develop.  Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, I've been adding some new paintings to this old website of mine.  Over the past two years I've spent a lot of time far inland, away from the coast for a change.  Ryan and I bought a piece of land in Monson and hope to build a camp in the future.  It has been a delight to discover remote parts of Maine I've never seen before.  We've hiked all over, and driven dirt roads for miles.  I keep returning to certain places, as I do here at the coast, to paint and paint again as the seasons change.  I've put some of this new work in its own section, inland, here.  I hope to continue to add to it over the coming years.  Being outside, either in the woods, at the ocean's edge, or right here in our backyard, is the primary thing that brings me peace during this difficult period in history.  I say history, because it sure feels historic, doesn't it?  As if we reached a major turning point, and actually did make the turn, into a new way of living, a new era.  What is most important has become glaringly obvious and the superfluous has fallen away.  I must say that I do yearn for frivolous treats from time to time, but even my definition of those has drastically changed, along with everything else.  Art remains necessary, I hope and believe.  The paintings we live with in our home, many made by dear friends and acquaintances, bring such joy, daily.  So does good food, and visiting with neighbors in the street on our daily walks, and speaking with friends and family on the phone.

I'll end this with one of the paintings from the Landing Gallery show:  morning clouds over Isle au Haut and Hutchins Island, from Islesboro, Maine - oil/panel, 11 x 14", 2019.  Made last September, in love with the world, with good friends painting nearby, on one of the islands visible down the bay from here.  I hope to return this September and paint there again.  Stay safe, and thanks for reading.

Me again, with two more pieces of good news to report.

First, I am very happy to say that Littlefield Gallery in Winter Harbor, Maine will be showing some of my paintings during their 2020 season.  More details on that soon.  For now, here is my information page on their website.  Thanks Jane and Kelly Littlefield, for visiting and for adding me to your gallery roster!

Second, the conservation organization Maine Coast Heritage Trust is turning fifty this year.  Thanks to their efforts, special places all over the coast are preserved, protected forever for seabirds and other wildlife, and in many cases opened to the public.  MCHT has just published a 50th anniversary anthology called Voices from the Coast, which contains essays, poetry, and art.  Some of the content is available online.  For the print version the editors selected one of my paintings for the cover, and I am so thrilled.  The book will be mailed out to members, donors, and other interested parties in the coming weeks.  Thank you, editors Alix Hopkins and Sophie Nelson, and Maine Coast Heritage Trust!

More in the spring.  I am starting to work on framing paintings for Landing Gallery, and my solo show there in May-June of 2020.  Lots to do, and thankfully, lots of time to do it in. 

The year is off to a lovely start with the publication of an article about my paintings in Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors magazine.  The arts writer, curator, and poet Carl Little came over for a studio visit and a nearby walk, so he could see how I set up to paint outside.  I'm so pleased with the article, here it is:

Sarah Faragher: a painter in alignment with nature

Print copies of the magazine are available in bookshops, markets, and maritime stores here in Maine right now.  Thank you Carl, and Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors! 

Meanwhile I am painting in my studio, and working on a book about painting.  I've made it through several drafts and it is coming into focus in a good way, but I still have a lot to do!  I will write again here in the spring with more information about that, and also with my show schedule for the season. 

Happy holidays and new year - a decade is about to turn over and with it comes a welcome fresh start.  I am inside for the winter, and working on my new solo show "At Sea: new paintings of the Maine coast" for May-June of 2020, with Landing Gallery in Rockland.  The paintings for the show are finished, and I am about to start framing them.  We are working on a new catalogue, which will be ready in late April.  Good winter projects!  I am also adding to the most recent draft of a book I am writing about being a landscape painter on an island in Maine.  I think a few months of work on it will see it finished, and I have a stack of paintings set aside in my studio to illustrate it.  But if I don't finish it this winter I will set it aside when outdoor painting weather returns, and revisit it again next winter.  I'm in no hurry.  I want it to be as good as I know how to make it, just like my paintings, and I know from experience how much time that can take.  Meanwhile I am enjoying seeing my new paintings in the studio.  I worked hard this year and have a lot to look at.  Living with them for months shows me where I want to go next in my work, what I would like to attempt.  I continue to be enthralled by groups of islands and headlands, surrounded by salt water and big skies.  This iteration of that theme will be at Landing Gallery in the new show:   

"Pink light out to sea, from the Pinkham Bay Bridge, Steuben, Maine" - oil/panel, 11 x 14", 2019.

Islands and the ocean aren't my only interests right now, though.  Like I did last year, I painted far inland a lot, especially during the fall, in the woods up around Greenville, Monson, and Katahdin, and I feel like I am continuing to get to know Maine in a new way.  I also ventured into New Hampshire and did some sketching in the White Mountains.  I'm hoping to do more of that in the year ahead, even as I continue to revisit my favorite coastal places to paint.  We are so fortunate here in Maine, with the wealth of natural beauty all around, and I never take it for granted.  I love to return to certain places again and again.  They feel like never-ending sources of joy, in painting and in life. 

That's all for now - except to say THANK YOU to friends and supporters who came out to see and purchase my work this past year.  I appreciate you so much, and am looking ahead with hopeful anticipation to the new decade.    

Hi friends, family, and painting enthusiasts!  Another summer season is on approach and after this long winter I am so ready!  I will be showing work in various venues this year.  Here is all the information.

First, I will soon be taking sixty new paintings to the exemplary Landing Gallery for my new solo show, Wild Life, about the pleasures of painting outside.  The show will be hanging before Memorial Day weekend and the official opening is Friday evening June 7th from 5:00 - 8:00.  At the end of June Landing Gallery will rehang a selection of my work for the summer, so please stop by when you are in Rockland.  A new catalogue for the Wild Life show is available from the gallery or from me directly. 

Then in August, five paintings of mine will be in the annual Blue Hill Public Library fundraising exhibit.  This year's show is entitled Vacationland, and is curated by Marcia Stremlau.  The show opens Friday August 2nd from 4:30 - 7:00 p.m., and will be up for the entire month.  This is usually a terrific group show.  Marcia has a great eye and I'm so pleased she is including my work again this year.

Again in August, the Dark Harbor Studio and Gallery on Islesboro is showing work from the group of artists I go on retreat with each fall at Long Ledge, the island home of painter Brita Holmquist.  The gallery is located in the Williams Building at 509 Pendleton Point Road in the village of Dark Harbor.  Our show will be opening on Thursday August 15th and will be up for a week.  

And, in August and September, I will be showing a few paintings at Betts Gallery at the Belfast Framer in their group show H2O, about water in all its forms.  I love painting snow, fog, clouds, the ocean, and inland waterways and am looking forward to seeing what the other artists in the exhibit will focus on.  The show opens in the evening on August 16th and runs through September 21st.

Here in my studio I have work for sale too, as always.  I've been framing some work and just added a lot of new images on the available work page of this site.  For more information about these paintings or to see others I have available, drop me a line.

That's all for now, although I am waiting to hear about another possible exhibit in the fall.  I will post an update about that when I know for sure.  I can't sign off without talking about painting for a minute, though.  Last year was an exciting one for me, painting-wise.  I spent a lot of time far inland, drawing and painting a few particular rivers, lakes, and mountains in northwestern Maine, and I feel like I am starting to know Maine in a new way.  Usually my attention is riveted by the ocean and islands, and that has been the case with me for decades now.  So to head in the opposite direction, go into the woods, and see how water behaves there has been a whole new thing for me.  I am rapt!  Some of my paintings from this ongoing exploration are shown with my other new work here, if you want to take a look.  And this is an example of one of them underway (a little over half-done), from last October, beside Lake Onawa:   

One last thing!  I must mention at least one painting from my new solo show, which is mostly ocean paintings.  This is on the cover of the Wild Life catalogue: September field up-island, Islesboro, Maine - oil/canvas, 16 x 20", 2018.  Come see it in person, at the show...?  Thanks for reading and thank you especially for your interest in my work (yes, this means you!).  I hope to see you out there in nature, in the months ahead.

Hi dear art friends - paintings of mine will be up and about this season, all over the great state of Maine, as will I!  Here is my summer and fall schedule:

First, the exemplary Landing Gallery now has all the work for my new solo show, Tree and Cloud.  The opening is Friday evening June 1st from 5:00 - 8:00, and the show will be up through the month of June (the gallery also keeps a selection of my work up all summer, so please stop by even if you can't make it in to see the whole show).  Catalogues are available at the gallery, and from me. 

In July, I will be painting around downeast Maine, and also heading inland for a few days to take a workshop with artist Alan Bray, at Monson Arts.  It's been a long time since I've taken a class but I have been yearning to paint in the woods lately and have admired Alan Bray's paintings for years, so this is a great opportunity!  To say I'm really looking forward to it is an understatement.  I'm already preparing some canvases and panels to bring with me.

In August, six paintings of mine will be in a group show at the Blue Hill Public Library:  Points of View, curated by Marcia Stremlau and Susan Webster, opening Friday August 3rd from 4:30 - 7:00 p.m.  Part of the proceeds of sales from the show goes to support this wonderful library and their community programming.  I'm very happy to be partipating in this fantastic annual exhibit again.  

Then in the fall, Betts Gallery at the Belfast Framer will have three of my paintings in a group show on the timeless theme of Trees - Maine is the Pine Tree State and trees are a major theme in Maine art and in my art too. The show opens on Friday September 28th, from 5:30 - 8 p.m., and runs through November 2nd.

And, I also have ten paintings hanging up right down the street - we have new neighbors who moved to town this spring and just opened a restaurant in their gorgeous historic house.  The Hichborn - their food looks amazing and "will follow the seasons of Maine."  Charlie and Kirk, the owners, a chef and artist respectively, want local artwork on the walls and asked me and several other artists from here in Stockton Springs to show paintings together.  It's great to have some work up with neighbor-painters Scott Moore, Peter Walls, and Fredrick Kuhn!

One more item of note - let's talk about books for a minute!  For the past few years one of my winter projects has entailed putting together two small books of my watercolors.  I love oil painting and that is my primary pursuit, but watercolor is also a great joy.  I scanned some of my favorites, put them together in a 10 x 8" hardcover, and printed the book online, via Blurb.  A Maine Coast Sketchbook shows 23 watercolors, plus 2 on the front and back covers, and a few mussel shell sketches for good measure.  I'm very happy with the color reproductions and archival paper.  Bonus: I am painting small watercolors inside the front cover of each copy, and signing them, and offering copies for sale here on my website.  That's the first book - the second one is longer, at around 100 pages, and is a poetic reverie about a day on the coast of Maine - morning, noon, afternoon, and evening - with brief text and sketches of the coast and of beach finds throughout.  Tidelines: a reverie is a 7 x 7" hardcover with a dust jacket, also printed on archival paper.  I am making a small drawing inside the cover of each copy of this book, too, and signing them.  Copies are only available to buy from me directly (contact me at [email protected]).  The catalogues from my three solo shows of the last three years are also available for sale.  Please take a look at my available work page for more details.

​Thanks for reading all this!  I'll sign off for now, with a painting.  This is one of the bigger paintings from my Tree and Cloud solo show, at 24 x 36".  Moonlight, starlight, from the harbor, Great Spruce Head Island, Maine - oil on canvas, 2017.  Seeing it again is making me think of island nights and the paintings that I hope to make, this  summer.  Stars, fireflies, phosphorescence, rising suns and moons - luminosity in the midst of darkness - an ongoing exploration and endeavor, always.  My best wishes for the seasons ahead!

Hi friends, it is deep winter around here and while I miss painting outside (so, so, so much), I am very busy working in the studio, framing paintings for a solo show in June at the wonderful Landing Gallery in Rockland, Maine.  The show is called Tree and Cloud (to complement last year's solo show Water and Stone) and consists of recent work from around Penobscot Bay and downeast Maine - about sixty paintings in all, from 5 x 7" up to 40 x 64".  The paintings will be at the gallery by mid-May and the show opens during the First Friday art walk, on the evening of June 1st.  A catalogue will be available in early May.  Full steam ahead!  Art matters!  I believe this now more than ever.  And, I must say, thank you to everyone who feels the same, and even more thank yous - a big bouquet of them - to folks who purchased my work last year.  It was my best year yet and I cannot thank you enough (yes, you!).  I live in a more or less constant state of gratitude for being able to devote the days of my life to painting.  I love it beyond words.

Snow is falling thick and fast this afternoon here in rural Maine and while I love to paint it (take a peek at my new work on this site to see a few recent snow paintings, made from inside while looking out the windows), right now I am remembering a particularly gorgeous hot summer day.  Sitting out on the ledges, making watercolors as a small-boat regatta streamed by, for hours and hours.  A brief look back at that day - finest kind - to help tide us over through the coming weeks and months, until we are back there once again.  Thanks for reading.  I hope to see you in June!