Vinalhaven Sketchbook 2025
Ah…the rocky coast of Maine…and the island of Vinalhaven, specifically! Visiting once a year for a week hardly feels like enough. But I’ll take it, and I’m happy to share some of the magic with you through my vacation sketches. Beloved by many, the Lane’s Island Preserve is simply one of the most beautiful places on the island. A large meadow and bayberry thickets ring a tidal cove and lead to an extensive rocky shoreline. With a bit of scrambling over granite boulders and rockweed, you can reach numerous tidepools, which I… Read More
Vacation Sketching
I’m back from a week on the island of Vinalhaven, which lies 15 miles off the coast of Rockland, Maine. While I’m incredibly grateful for the time away, I’m also longing for more. My week was full of exploring tidal coves, hiking through moss carpeted spruce forests, swimming in the island’s former granite quarries, sinking into new books, and sketching. I could have easily kept going and, as the week wound down, I realized too late that I didn’t schedule quite enough time for painting. Alas, it’s all good. I’m happily thinking… Read More
What lies ahead
A map and a blank page—what better way to start a vacation? Tips and Techniques– Making a map often requires careful drawing, so you may find it helpful to do it in advance of your travels. You can add elements as you go right on the map or make sketches in the margins surrounding it. You can also decide how much of the place to include—you may want to zoom in on a particular area or tackle something larger. I’m thinking about including a series of maps for this trip but we’ll… Read More
Vinalhaven Sketchbook 2023
Moss-carpeted forests, spruce spires reaching the sky.Mushrooms after rain: scarlet, orange, purple, yellow.Granite boulders that sprout gardens of ferns and grey-green lichens.Rocky pools brimming with life caught between the tides.Migrating shorebirds and seabirds.Quarry swimming. Quiet. No stop lights. No chain stores. No cell coverage.Ferries. Fog.These are the things that draw me to the island of Vinalhaven, Maine. I hope your summer has taken you to some of your favorite places, too. See other Vinalhaven Sketchbooks:2020 Map, 2020, 2021.
Clamming
If you’ve ever enjoyed a clam roll or chowder or steamers, then you know the flavor of Mya arenaria, the soft shell clam. Before these mollusks reach your table, they eek out a life burrowed in soft mud or sand, filtering tiny plankton from sea water. Most clams today won’t reach their potential life span of 10-12 years, nor will they reach anyone’s plate, because they will be eaten first by highly invasive green crabs or other predators. Here’s a look at the ins and outs of clams and a few of… Read More
Seals Hauled Out
If seeing harbor seals lazing on seaweed draped rocks isn’t awesome enough, hearing them growling at each other and splashing at rivals in a full-on water fight ranks high on my list of Maine vacation experiences. This group of about 40 seals hauls out to rest on the same rocky ledges at low tide each day. I sketched them on two separate days; first, from a place on shore where I used binoculars to view them, and the second time from a closer rocky outcrop that we reached by canoe. Tucked in… Read More
Vinalhaven Sketchbook 2021
Islands all along the east coast are invaded each summer by lovers of sun, beaches, and beauty. DownEast Maine islands are no different, except that the beaches are rocky, the water is cold, and you’re likely to get a healthy dose of fog as well as sun. If you go far enough out to sea, you can add solitude to the list of attributes. We’ve found all of that on the island of Vinalhaven, which sits at the margin of Penobscot Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. Here are a few pages from… Read More
Ready to Go
It’s hard to believe that after six months of staying close to home a planned vacation to Maine is actually going to happen later this month. Yahoo! I’ll be stepping into the world of granite boulders and tide pools before you know it. In preparation for our trip, I did what I often do before leaving home and made a map to set the stage for the sketchbook pages to come. The island of Vinalhaven has a rich history of quarrying and lobster fishing, so I used a monochromatic map from 1859… Read More
Jean Mackay
The Nature Explorer’s Sketchbook
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