This is my favorite of the little plein air paintings I did on location in Maine. I set up my easel on the porch of our motel, high on a hill overlooking Frenchman Bay. The early morning sun was sparkling on the water and just catching the tops of the trees in the foreground. I painted quickly, trying to simplify the scene and not go back over the brushstrokes that were already working. So many times, I go back to "fix" some little thing and lose the fresh, "un-fussy" quality that I'm striving for, and I'm never quite able to put it back the way it was. A painting goes through so many stages on the way to being called finished, and the final version isn't always the artist's favorite. Still, I learn so much each time I set out to complete a painting that the ups and downs along the way are always worth it.
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