Posts Tagged ‘Portland’

An Art Road Trip: Artists’ Homes and Studios to Visit in New York, Massachusetts and Maine

The Hudson River Valley and New England are especially rich in artists’ studios and homes, offering a behind-the-scenes opportunity to glimpse the motivations and settings that impacted creativity.

New York and Hudson River Valley

Edward Hopper House Courtesy Edward Hopper Historic House & Study Center

Edward Hopper’s haunting cityscapes are familiar to visitors to the Whitney Museum of American Art, but it’s his early home in Rockland County that provided much inspiration and context. The Nyack countryside gave him ample exposure to light and landscape, which he incorporated into his many depictions of city and country life in the 20th century. The Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center currently serves as an exhibition space for exhibitions relating to Hopper and works of various artists.

Where to Stay:

Courtesy Hotel Nyack

Hotel Nyack – Designed by the David Rockwell Group, Hotel Nyack is the first boutique, lifestyle hotel in Rockland County and part of the Joie de Vivre/Hyatt collection. The stylish rooms and spaces add a fitting design element to your art getaway.

Courtesy The Castle Hotel and Spa

The Castle Hotel and Spa – A short drive from Nyack,  The Castle Hotel and Spa in Tarrytown will inspire your creative muse with its original architectural elements. In an envious location overlooking the lower Hudson River Valley, the distinctive castle dates from 1897 and was designed in the style of a Norman fortification in Wales, Ireland and Scotland.

Thomas Cole’s Old Studio © John Thorn

Thomas Cole is synonymous with the Hudson River School. It was Cole who gave birth to America’s first significant art movement and his landscapes occupy an important place in museums like the National Gallery, New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. After a visit to Cole’s beautiful Catskill home with its sweeping views of the Catskill Mountains you might just be tempted to pause a while with your own sketchbook. The Thomas Cole National Historic Site features changing exhibits of landscape paintings.

Olana © Stan Ries

In nearby Hudson, Frederic Edwin Church, the second important painter of the Hudson River School, established his family home, studio and estate. Unlike his teacher Thomas Cole, Church is best known for paintings of exotic locales instead of the local scenery that Cole favored. Resembling a Hudson River School painting, the Olana State Historic Site covers 250 acres and includes Church’s Persian-inspired house with commanding views of the Hudson River Valley. On display are paintings by Church as well as other collected art.

The dining room at Manitoga © Vivian Linares

Manitoga/The Russel Wright Design Center in Garrison invites visitors to spend time contemplating Wright’s seamless merging of indoor and outdoor design. This famous house, created by industrial designer Russel Wright, seems to flow effortlessly into beautiful gardens with waterfalls, an example of the modernist design he introduced to the world. The setting was transformed from a ravaged industrial site into a spot for artistic creativity with miles of paths and views of the Hudson River.

Where to Stay:

Courtesy The Maker Hotel

The Maker Hotel – Newly opened in the artsy-Boho town of Hudson, The Maker Hotel is filled with vintage and current arts, crafts and works from local artisans and makers. A perfect complement to the artists’ homes in the Hudson River Valley, the hotel also has a notable dining room and fitness options.

New England

Chesterwood © Don Freeman

Another favorite area of artists, the Berkshires in western Massachusetts is the location of Chesterwood, the summer home, studio and gardens of lauded American sculptor Daniel Chester French. One of America’s foremost public sculptors, French created more than 100 monuments including the acclaimed Minute Man in Concord, Massachusetts and Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial. Many of the original plaster models and sculptures in bronze and marble can be viewed in his Stockbridge home. Visitors are welcome to wander the European-inspired gardens, particularly beautiful in the spring and autumn.

Frelinghuysen Morris House © Paul Rocheleau

The next town over, Lenox, is the site of Bauhaus-inspired Frelinghuysen Morris House & Studio, the two-story white stucco and glass, modernist home of Suzy Frelinghuysen and George L.K. Morris, painters, collectors and founders of American Abstract Art. The house is notable for its contrast to the “cottage”-type architecture found in the area. The house museum displays an extensive collection of mid-century art including the couple’s own cubist works.

Where to Stay:

Courtesy The Inn at Kenmore Hall

The Inn at Kenmore Hall — The first summer arts colony in the Berkshires in the 1880s, Kenmore Hall in Richmond counted Daniel Chester French among its students. Today, the history-filled B&B has been lovingly restored with appropriate design and appointments for an intimate stay in a gorgeous setting near the attractions of the Berkshires.

Winslow Homer Studio © Trent Bell Photography

Winslow Homer was inspired by the rough coastlines of Maine, particularly those in the southern part of the state. His studio, located on Prouts Neck in Scarborough, is overseen by the Portland Museum of Art. If you walk along the peninsula and the beach, you’ll understand the chilly, rocky images that Homer painted. You might even recognize some the views from paintings at the Philadelphia Museum of Art Museum or Chicago Art Institute. Homer spent 17 years at this location, living in the simple understated structure and painting from a balcony overlooking the ocean. To visit the studio, you must first stop at the Portland Museum of Art – a chance to see some of the artist’s paintings – and then board a shuttle to Prouts Neck.

Kent—Fitzgerald Historic Home Courtesy Fitzgerald Legacy Archives, © John Lawrence

As early as 1850, Monhegan Island in Maine had become a magnet for artists. The headlands of the remote island and its wild, car-free setting were a draw for creative souls, appealing with their natural beauty and simplicity. Up steep Light House Hill, artist Rockwell Kent built a home and studio that was later used by artist James Fitzgerald and portraitist Alice Stoddard. Kent painted much of what he saw daily en plein air focusing on regional realism while Fitzgerald’s watercolor interpretations of the area were created from memory and sketched indoors. Kent’s famous Winter, Monhegan Island is a stylized depiction, on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Artworks created by Fitzgerald and Stoddard are shown in the nearby Monhegan Museum of Art & History.

Where to Stay:

Courtesy The Black Point Inn

The Black Point Inn – On a sweep of beach on Prouts Neck in Scarborough, the classic Maine resort is a look into the relaxed history of the area.  With its waterfront location, traditional Maine dining, and classic architecture, the inn will help you understand why Winslow Homer chose this location for his studio.

Pierce Cottage at The Island Inn © Meryl Pearlstein

The Island Inn You’ll understand why Monhegan Island appeals to artists when you stay at the inn. Overlooking the harbor with scenery that becomes the main event of the day, the Island Inn and its adjacent Pierce Cottage embodies simplicity, allowing the environs to remain the star of the show. Simple rooms and a popular porch with rocking chairs along with Adirondack chairs on the lawn invite you to relax after a day of exploring the island and the art.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation and writer Valerie A. Balint have created a guide that covers these areas and more, including detail and photos for 44 artists’ homes and working studios in 21 states.

Carnaval Maine Puts the Wonder Back in Winter

New York to Maine is a quick trip by air. Nonstop flights to Portland from JFK or LGA make this a deliciously fabulous weekend getaway.

Celebrations of the winter season have been popular for more than a century. Chasing the Northern Lights in Scandinavia and visiting Santa Claus headquarters in Finland are joined in North America in Quebec City, the world’s snow capital, where the first major winter carnival made its debut in 1894. And now in the US.

Courtesy VisitPortland.com

In the 1920s, thousands of visitors flocked to Portland, Maine to enjoy a winter spectacle of ice castles, sculptures, sled dogs, ski jumping and other outdoor festivities. A century later, from January 30-February 1 Carnaval Maine brought the party back Down Maine for a two-day, 100-year commemoration on the city’s Eastern Promenade, all covered with snow, a fitting start to the state’s 2020 winter season.

Courtesy VisitPortland.com

Following in the tradition of Quebec’s Winter Carnival, the Maine Bicentennial Snow Ball celebrated the century’s inaugural winter festival which marked the beginning of the one-month winter celebration. This year is also the 200th year of Maine’s statehood, making the celebration a true milestone.

Train Transport at Carnaval Maine Courtesy VisitPortland.com

If you missed the 2020 Carnaval Maine, you can count on next year to continue this newly rebooted tradition. The reception by the crowds certainly ensured that. Throughout the event, other commemorative events including arrival from the city’s Old Port by a vintage steam locomotive (provided by the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad) were popular tickets. Taking passengers on a coastal ride, a decked-out conductor in his caboose looked like he had come straight from the Polar Express as part of this historic rail car procession. The train traveled along the coast to a snowy hillside area and a towering 600-foot inflatable “igloo” on Cutter Street.

The Hill Courtesy of VisitPortland.com

In partnership with Sunday River Resort in Newry, Maine, Carnaval Maine created a hill active with USASA (United States Amateur Snowboard Association) National Qualifying Rail Jam competitors. Crowds cheered spins, jumps, and flips down rail outcroppings and over ramps. Talented skiers and snowboarders of varying ages accumulated points, showing off talents that could potentially lead to national championships and future Olympic appearances.

Food Igloo Courtesy VisitPortland.com

The igloo was a centerpiece of the festival, with an Aurora Borealis-style alternating light show projected on it, adding to the polar effect. But it was inside that the more tangible “northern lights” occurred. Food and drink were key at this city dubbed one of the country’s newest culinary capitals by Bon Appetit. “Bites & Brews” foodie-oriented events brought Portland’s award-winning chefs and craft brewers together with spirits and dishes from James Beard fave Allagash Brewing Company along with Luke’s Lobster, Rising Tide, Shipyard Brewing Company, Holy Donut, UNION, Maine Beer Company, Urban Farm Fermentory, Noble BBQ and Central Provisions, so many of my Maine favorites happily together in one warm spot.

Noble Barbeque courtesy VisitPortland.com

Central Provisions, my go-to whenever I visit Portland, had one of the most delicious ale-and-food pairings, with Rising Tide Brewing’s Mountainside IPA paired with smoked gouda bratwurst, Brussels sprouts, sauerkraut and Mountainside mustard on rye crostini. I also loved Urban Farm Fermentory and Noble BBQ’s combo, semi-sweet mead and burnt-end chili with corn bread. And how about this for a fabulous Shipyard Brewing Company & Holy Donut dessert pairing, Smashed Blueberry (a hybrid between a Porter and a Scotch ale) with a dark chocolate sea salt donut.

Evenings saw other Rail Jam events and light-covered trees surrounded by people clustered around outdoor fire pits enjoying warming nightcaps of hot chocolate, coffee and other beverages. Befitting Portland’s burgeoning art community, art installations, illumination shows and professional ice sculptors were beautiful additions to the schedule.

Courtesy VisitPortland.com

While Portland’s event does not have the comparable size and history of Quebec’s famous cold-weather festivities, Maine’s first year was an ambitious and exciting reinvention of the early 1900’s version.

Planning a trip to NYC?