View From My Kayak

For the past 30 years, I have spent the third week of June in Stonington, Maine.  Stonington sits at the end of the Blue Hill Peninsula about three hours from where I live in Maine. It is an old lobster fishing village that faces the most amazing archipelago of islands.  We join a group of friends each June paddling from island to island, stopping to explore, snack and linger. When the weather cooperates we try to get out on the water around 5am so we can watch the sun coming up on the islands.  The light is amazing. As we approached Coots Island, the light hit the foliage and the rocks and everything turned a miraculous shade of red. The leaves on the rocks mimicked the red you would see in a holiday bouquet.  It was hard to believe what we were seeing. By the time we headed back to shore the light had changed, and the foliage had turned green again.  But my husband had the presence of mind to snap a photo so I could paint it when I returned to my studio.