"Scarborough Sunset" Original Acrylic Coastal Landscape Painting

Original acrylic on wood panel, 6"x8", 2024-25. Ready to hang.

Scarborough Sunset is one of ten paintings in my Little Coast collection. The title is quite straightforward- this is Scarborough Beach in Scarborough Maine, at sunset on January 5, 2020 (so, before 4pm.) I was fascinated by the way the light reflected on the wet, packed sand and created a silvery mirror of the sky.

Summer in coastal New England: it’s blue, it’s gray, it’s warm days playing on the sand but only your toes brave the cold water. It’s weathered rocks on winding beaches and a misty breeze that sneaks right through the knit of your sweater. The blue is deep and opaque and still enthralls you (me) when the sun is out. I love how sea air weathers everything, graying the shingled houses, and smoothing rocks, seaglass and driftwood. 

The Little Coast series celebrates the coastline I know and love, extending both ways from New Hampshire’s proud 13 miles up through midcoast Maine, and (beyond the scope of this series) even the Maritimes of Canada; and down the coast of Massachusetts to the Cape where I’ve only been once or twice. My family are ocean people, and we’re pulled back to shore like a slow tide every few months, even in winter. The small scale of these paintings allow other ocean people, like us, to hold a piece of the Gulf of Maine closely. They emphasize the scale of a moment and how precious what it contains may be.