This past summer (2017) I got a chance to spend a few days in beautiful Stonington, Maine.
Stonington, located on Deer Isle, just off the Blue Hill Peninsula, is one of the most picturesque spots for painting in the state. There are quite a few local artists, but also many other artists come to paint, do workshops, and generally enjoy this relatively untrammeled part of Maine.
Some friends of mine, Kelly Carmody and Viktor Butko were kind enough to invite me for few days to share a house they had rented for a few weeks. They were doing some amazing work and I really regret that I didn’t take any photos of them working.
The Blue Hill Peninsula juts out of the mainland just south of Acadia. So the hordes that visit the National Park generally pass it by.
A little history about Stonington: Originally called Green’s landing, it saw its first influx of Europeans From the French, who were there about 1700. A little later English settlers came and started farming.
Eventually the soil became depleted, but by then Granite quarrying had started, as it did in much of that region of Maine. Hence, the name change to Stonington once the town became incorporated about 1900.
I’ll definitely be back sometime next summer as Stonington is only a few hours away from my town, Rockland, Maine.
Stephan Giannini 