Before I talk about horses, I have to announce this: Rae Chalmers, author of the OXBOW ISLAND GANG series, is hosting a Book Launch on Sunday, June 6 from 12:30 – 3:30 at the Island Lobster Company on Peaks Island! Mark your calendars: join us for food, fun, and games on the lower-level deck to celebrate Rae’s great books.
photo © Rae Chalmers
Folks may think of lobsters when they think of…
Oxbow Island Gang Strikes Again tells the story behind Jamie Hogan’s illustrations for this environmental mystery written by Rae Chalmers
book cover illustration by Jamie Hogan
Peaks Island author Rae Chalmer’s first book, Bear and the Oxbow Island Gang was published in April of 2020, smack in the early stages of what would become our relentless pandemic, with no opportunity to be out meeting her readers at book signings. She decided to just keep writing her second book. Lucky me! I began working on sketches in May after reading…
This Land Is Your Land
Happy New Year, dear readers! It’s been awhile. I hope you are safe and well in these turbulent times. I’ve been finding that walks, even short ones, re-calibrate my jangled nerves. What about you?
Nature is the best medicine we’ve got. I recently learned that the Peaks Island Land Preserve has 12 miles of trails on the little Rock I call home. My partner is on the board of this quiet little…
I knew in January before the pandemic hit that my turn illustrating posters for Portland Stage was over. The marketing director, Eileen Phelan, had left for other frontiers and it was likely the new hire would have other plans. But what a good run: 48 posters over the course of a decade of theater seasons. Thank you, Portland Stage!
I owe this gig to my dear friend, island neighbor, and fellow…
Before the pandemic struck in March, our daughter, Daisy Braun, was living in Pittsburgh, working at the Children’s Museum in the Art Studio. She’d been invited by SPACE Gallery in Portland, Maine to be part of an event on First Friday in April. But Covid-19 had other plans.
Fast forward to June, when Daisy returned to Peaks Island after being furloughed for three months. Her proposal to…
My island neighbor, dear friend, and author Nicole d’Entremont, has taken up drawing with a passion. She began creating what she called Trumpoons back in 2017 as expressions of satire fueled by outrage. This led to drawing more, taking sketchbooks on her travels to Vietnam and New York. She took her first drawing class this January with the legendary artist, Martha Miller, at Maine College of Art
Readers of this blog may be aware that I am a devout snail mailer. This valentine I made a few years ago attests to my love for letters in all ways.
collage © Jamie Hogan
It was of course gratifying to illustrate a post office scene in Island Birthday by Eva Murray, where islanders congregate.
illustration by Jamie Hogan from ISLAND BIRTHDAY by Eva Murray
And with the writing of…
Are you as upside down as I am? These past two months have been deeply unsettling. As a freelance artist for almost 40 years, it’s not the working from home that’s an adjustment. It’s everything else. The global deaths, economic fallout, social distancing, mask-wearing, and swabbing of surfaces are overwhelming. Although it’s often hard to concentrate, finding a daily creative moment has kept me…
We saw the newest production at Portland Stage last night, Native Gardens by Karen Zacarias. Directed by Jade King Carroll, it’s a rollicking take on border relations in more ways than one.
I worked on the poster a year ago, in the bleak mid-winter, when drawing botanical motifs was a quite welcome task. I presented a dozen rough ideas, here are some of them.
The play centers on two…
Bear and the Oxbow Island Gang
It’s for real! Rae Chalmer’s debut chapter book is here: Bear and the Oxbow Island Gang is an environmental mystery set on a Maine island for readers 8 – 11. There’s a book launch on Sunday, April 5 at the Peaks Island Community Room from 2:30 – 4:30. Mark your calendars and please join us for refreshments and fun!
Last fall, after reading Rae’s manuscript, I began illustrating the story by…
I worked on a really different project this past summer, for Pathfinder International, a non-profit organization based in Watertown, MA. Since 1957, Pathfinder has partnered with local governments, communities, and health systems to remove barriers to sexual and reproductive health services. Together, they expand access to contraception, promote healthy pregnancies, save women’s lives, and stop…
It’s probably no surprise that our island home has it’s share of nautical elements. There’s Marty’s Uncle Jack’s ship in a bottle.
print by Kris Johnsen, ship in a bottle by Jack Hinkley
I’ve drawn my share of ships.
pastel in frame by Jamie Hogan, stone sculpture by Kathy Hanley
I was in a nautical vintage mood when I created my valentine card this year. I’d come across an old…
I worked on poster ideas for John Cariani’s play, Almost, Maine last winter, the perfect season for a love letter to northern Maine.
I borrowed a pastel background from another poster (Babette’s Feast) when I mocked up my sketches, which all involved a big Maine sky.
The vignettes in the play involve two people connecting, with many of the scenes outside on a Friday night in the deep winter.
mushroom cult
think i’m being followed…
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A variety of leopard slugs from Heinrich Simroth’s Die Nacktschneckenfauna des Russischen Reiches...
