A couple of weeks ago, I returned to New York from my summer home in Rangeley, Maine. My house is a converted vacation spot, known as York's Lodge (no relation), on a lake. The lodge which was in business from 1889-1961.

Flo on the lake
My studio for painting is what used to be the kitchen. The studio has sky lights and the windows look out on a lake where there are loons. The sound of the water and wind rustling the birch leaves mixes with the sound of spectralism from my cd player and the loons. The light from the west is too direct to paint from in the late afternoon, so I work before and sometimes after.

Flo in the painting studio.
Currently I am working on prepared panels which fit in my car, about 44 x 46 inches or smaller. Suitcases filled with postcards and stuff make nice level platform for dogs to rest on during 10 hour drive from NYC. They are happy to look out the car rear window. This summer I found some weathered plywood which I painted on. It takes a while to get started, but once I begin it is very lovely. My four dogs like on the couch and overstuffed chairs against the wall behind me.

Bobbin, Candy and Penny
They don’t care what I do as long as I'm happy. Which is nice. Later in the month I often turn my attention to photo and video and will work outside (late in the season there are fewer bugs) in the woods or on the lake. I might arrange for assistants to come up and stay in some of the other cabins. The dogs work then.

Flo working.
Find Penny...
The videos for Sesame Street and The Hardly Boys film were made in Rangeley. The lodge is the epitome of “rustic modernization in the heart of the woods”. The light is intense. We have to use special filters. This year we did a lot of video and photo work on the dock. Jason, my assistant, worked the cameras and I did the dogs. It was fun, but the results were not very good. I had forgotten that it is not always easy.

WW and Flo on the dock.
When I return to NYC in the fall there is usually a lot of photo and video editing to be done and I will try to make sense of it. I also will want to view the paintings I have brought back to assess in the common light and blank white walls of the NYC studio.
-- WW