Three artist friends and I journeyed together to Monhegan Island off the coast of Maine to hike and plein air paint together. We had an absolutely wonderful time.

In this post you can see us arriving via a ferry from Bar Harbor, and getting our first taste of the tiny town on the island, studded as it is with lobster traps, buoys, boats, gardens, and ochre colored lichen.

We stayed at Monhegan House which was wonderful; all of us in one spartan room with the bathroom down the hall, and our breakfast and dinner included. The food turned out to be great, walking was the only mode of transportation (with lots of hills), and we met wonderful people everywhere we went. It’s a special place that has a drying rack for paintings in the lobby!

For a video of that curtain fluttering on my Instagram, click here. It reminded me of paintings by Andrew Wyeth, and the last photo below is a scene painted by Edward Hopper. So many famous painters have painted here, it seemed everywhere you turn you already have a memory of this place you’ve never been to before.

We’d do it all over again, and I hope we will, since we’ve just scratched the surface of this artist’s haven, and we all got along so well together. It will take me several days to blog all of our hikes and adventures. In this posts are our first impressions, before we hiked away from town on their 17 miles of rugged trails filled with beauty beyond.