Langlais Sculpture Preserve

Sometimes FB promotes something actually worthwhile.  Such was the case when this location popped up in Bill's feed.  It's a 90 acre preserve located in Cushing, ME, not too far from Rockland.  The property was the "homestead of renowned Maine Artist, Bernard "Blackie" Langlais and his wife Helen."   Blackie created more than 3500 indoor and outdoor works of art, some of them are located here while many more are located throughout Maine.

What a beautiful day to take a ride.  When we arrived, there were only a couple of cars in the parking lot.

The first sculpture we found, which wasn't really hiding, was what I call "Four Bears".  I couldn't find anything on the web that indicated what the sculptures were called, so I named them myself.  

It's difficult to tell from the pictures but this sculpture is very tall!

Next up was one of two elephants.  At one time, it was possible to climb up inside this sculpture and stand on the top but it's been closed off.

There were several sculptures in this area, right off the parking lot.  This is the "Hand".  It looks simple but I bet it wasn't.  I wish I had taken a picture with Bill standing next to it so you could tell how large it really is!

The thumb side

Four tall fingers and a thumb

This hand could almost reach out and slap the elephant's rear end

If you look again at the first picture of the bears, this woman is in the background looking off into the distance.  I recognized her immediately as the woman in Andrew Wyeth's painting..."Christina's World".  What I didn't know is that this painting was "set in the stark landscape of coastal Maine."

I wonder who Langlais used as a model for the face, because she was only seen from the back.  It does appear that she has spent too much time in the sun.

There is a 1/4 mile crushed gravel path that winds among the 12 sculptures on the property.  We came upon this cow next, rather abstract, but clearly a cow.

The cow was sharing the landscape with elephant No. 2.

The best thing about this elephant was walking into it and seeing that the artist had painted food that it might have eaten.  It was like being in it's belly, peanuts and bananas and some other unknown foods. ;o). Someone had a good sense of humor.

Somewhat hidden behind the cow was an undetermined animal.  Alligator?  Dog, perhaps?  

We honestly have no idea what it is.  It doesn't have an alligator's tail nor does have dog's ears.  I'm leaning towards alligator.

This one is just weird.  I call it "Geese, Seagulls and Birds".

Coming around the bend we spotted this seagull on top of a tall black pillar.

It doesn't look like much up close; it's much nicer from over by the cow.

Admittedly, this next one was my favorite!

It's the one and only...Tricky Dicky (Richard) Nixon.

He's appropriately located in the swampy area!  Brilliant.

Located downhill from the farmhouse, where Bernard Langlais lived and worked from 1966 to 1977, there is a representation of the animal kingdom.

Here are a couple of closeups...

Giraffes and leopard, maybe

Rhinocerous and porcupine

Wading bird?  Stork?  

Standing here, you can turn around, look up the hill and see the farmhouse.

Nice place, huh?  The artist even placed art on the house itself.

This 30' tall horse is the sculpture that started it all, located on a small hill overlooking the road.

Along with the sculptures, the land is covered in wild flowers, including new gardens planted specifically to host birds and butterflies.

Devil's Bite Liatris

I tried for nearly half an hour to identify all the above flowers but only had luck with one.

We spent nearly two hours here before we headed to Rockland, which was only a few miles away.  It was already two o'clock and we were hungry, so our first stop was a late lunch at Clan MacLaren, right on Main Street.  I grabbed the remaining outside table, while Bill picked out sandwiches for both of us.  This is my turkey, avacado panini and it was delicious.

On one of our harbor visits earlier in the summer, we came to Rockland and walked along the boardwalk, which we enjoyed so we decided to do that again today, before leaving.  

Lots of dingys at the dock in Rockland Harbor...

And lots of boats were visible in the harbor from Sandy Beach.

Not much makes me happier than blue sky and blue water and nice, warm temperatures.

Being September, the birds are gathering for their trip south, much like we do, only earlier.

Or, maybe not as these are pigeons.

From there, we got iced coffees at McDonalds, said goodbye to Rockland and headed home.

Thanks for stopping by...

;o)

Breakfast Art

"Hoooooo's Having Eggs for Breakfast?"

I think this looks like an owl...do you?

Thanks for stopping by...
;o)

Riding Around Schoodic

Woke up to a cloudy sky and it appeared to have rained overnight.  We left around 10:40, more like our usual departure time, 66* and mostly cloudy.  As we only had about 30 miles before running out of gas, we stopped in Trenton for gas ($2.46/gal) and Aroma Joe's in Ellsworth for a hot beverage, then on to Schoodic Peninsula, which is part of Acadia National Park.

We got to the parking area at 11:57, down to 64* but the sun was trying to break through the clouds.  Schoodic is a beautiful place...lots of rocks and waves and there's no charge for parking, although you still need a park pass.

We made our way to the Wansqueak Harbor parking area, unloaded our bikes and headed out on the bike path to cover the 2.7 miles to Frazer Point.  Neither of us remembered that the bike path is seriously uphill 90% of the way and the crushed gravel is difficult to maneuver.  However, the smell of balsam along the way was marvelous. 

It took us about 30 minutes to reach Frazer Point, where we ate lunch.  Of course, it spit rain on us the whole time but we sat at a nice picnic table near the water.

My colorful wrap

This is a really nice little park along the Schoodic loop road.  We had a nice view over the water toward Winter Harbor.

There was a new, improved fishing pier, which provided good views in another direction.

We actually managed to take a decent selfie ;o)

From here we rode along the paved (yay) loop road back to the parking area, 3.4 miles, where we stopped for a few minutes to enjoy the area a little longer.

One of the views along the loop road

The sun was trying so hard to shine and it felt so good when it did!

It was another 3 miles back to the car.  For most of the way, this road travels right along the shore and most of it is one way traffic. The smells and the views make the trip very enjoyable.  We made it back to the car at 3:05.

We stopped at McDonalds in Ellsworth on our way home for iced coffees, along with muffins for tomorrow.  We arrived at the cottage at 4:45 and unloaded the car in the rain.  

We had left the windows open and the cottage was pretty chilly.  We turned on the heat, sat in the recliner and read while it POURED rain.  Thankfully we weren't still hiking or biking in the park!

We headed into town around 5:45 and stopped at the Katahdin Art Gallery because we (well, I) want a nice fall picture to hang above our bed during the fall/winter months.  It will replace the ocean one that has hung there year round for years. We (well, I) hemmed and hawed and finally made a decision, asking the owner if he could print it larger for us.  We ended up getting an unmatted print, 22 x 33, which he printed and packaged for us while we waited.

photo by Steve Bart/ Katahdin Art Gallery, Bar Harbor, ME

I can't wait to have it matted and framed, just not sure who to trust to do it.

From there we went up the road to use our gift card at Pat's Pizza, where we could park for free, rather than pay for another hour's parking at $2/hour.  The parking meters, which were installed earlier this summer, have netted the town of Bar Harbor $1,000,000 MORE than was originally projected!!!

Of course, Pat's Pizza is not open on Tuesdays!  So instead, we drove to what used to be Little Anthony's, which is now The Tailgate, paid for another hour's parking and ate dinner there, instead.  Got home by 8:30 and watched another segment of the Ken Burns "History of Country Music" program on MainePublic TV.

I could see stars when we got home ;o)

Thanks for stopping by...
;o)