handmade by Margaret Rizzio

painting by Jessica Ives

Even though it’s been a long, cold, rainy spring here in Maine, there’s no stopping summer. It’s coming — and it’s what keeps us going.

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207 Paintings post everyish Tuesday around 5:30am EST on both The Maine and jessicaleeives.com. Save thirty percent on a 4×4 inch oil on panel painting by making your purchase within the first week of its posting. Instead of $300 pay just $207, a number which just happens to be the Maine state area code.

Tuesday 207 Paintings are exclusive to The Maine. They depict the land, the light and the people that make this state a state of wonder. Jessica is editor of The Maine and writes occasionally as The Outsider.

photos by Jonathan Ives

Warm spring weather in Maine mean the bugs come out!
Not all flies are black flies.

display by Jo Ellen Designs

We have stars in our eyes + in our window display! 

painting by Jessica Ives

Soon the Hardy Boat will begin running its route from New Harbor to Monhegan, and soon I’ll be atop the tallest coastal cliffs in Maine, perched and peering south toward Gull Rock, glad to start another summer season.

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207 Paintings post everyish Tuesday around 5:30am EST on both The Maine and jessicaleeives.com. Save thirty percent on a 4×4 inch oil on panel painting by making your purchase within the first week of its posting. Instead of $300 pay just $207, a number which just happens to be the Maine state area code.

Tuesday 207 Paintings are exclusive to The Maine. They depict the land, the light and the people that make this state a state of wonder. Jessica is editor of The Maine and writes occasionally as The Outsider.

painting by Jessica Ives

The Sheepscot River is one of eight rivers in Maine that have Atlantic Salmon. These fish need the river’s clean gravel bottom to lay their eggs, and its rapids to aerate the water for their young. Because October is the month that these fish spawn, the Sheepscot and other rivers or streams with wild Brook Trout and Atlantic Salmon are closed to fishing after September. This prevents fisherman from accidentally crushing eggs as they wade through the river.

Smolt are the young, six-inch salmon that swim from these Maine rivers all the way to Northern Greenland, two thousand miles away! Over the course of two to three years these fish will wait in the Northern Atlantic Ocean growing in size up to ten and fifteen pounds. Then they will migrate back to the same river where they were once a small egg and begin the cycle again. If these fish can wait three years to return to the Sheepscot then surely we can wait until April, when fishing season opens and we can wade into the waters once again.

text by Jonathan Ives

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207 Paintings post everyish Tuesday around 5:30am EST on both The Maine and jessicaleeives.com. Save thirty percent on a 4×4 inch oil on panel painting by making your purchase within the first week of its posting. Instead of $300 pay just $207, a number which just happens to be the Maine state area code.

Tuesday 207 Paintings are exclusive to The Maine. They depict the land, the light and the people that make this state a state of wonder. Jessica is editor of The Maine and writes occasionally as The Outsider.

painting by Jessica Ives

As I sit here and jot notes about these, my two newest paintings, it is snowing, sleeting, and raining. The first day of spring has come and gone, but it is March in Maine and here we are with weather not quite fit for skiing, but also not quite tempting us to dress in lighter layers just yet. And so we wait and lean into spring, like a beginner hesitantly tilting his weight forward and trusting the mountain’s momentum to catch him and carry him safely down the slope for the first time…the second time…and then again and again.

Here’s to a wonderful winter of snowy adventures, including my first time riding at Sunday River. Boy, isn’t that Northern Lights trail a beauty? Enjoy these last two winter paintings of the season as we all lean into spring together.

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207 Paintings post everyish Tuesday around 5:30am EST on both The Maine and jessicaleeives.com. Save thirty percent on a 4×4 inch oil on panel painting by making your purchase within the first week of its posting. Instead of $300 pay just $207, a number which just happens to be the Maine state area code.

Tuesday 207 Paintings are exclusive to The Maine. They depict the land, the light and the people that make this state a state of wonder. Jessica is editor of The Maine and writes occasionally as The Outsider.

display by Jo Ellen Designs

Bun chicka bun! That’s one great window!