Art Series: Plummer Point Landscape; Maine Mushrooms
By Claire Loon Baldwin
Plummer Point Landscape
Artist Statement
A view of Plummer Point from Feldspar Point, painted with watercolor, gouache, and ink. I created this piece while working for Coastal Rivers Conservation Trust as a Communications and Membership Manager. In 2022, they led a campaign to acquire the Tip of Plummer Point, and this illustration was used as a gratitude card for donors. Plummer Point is an ecologically rich location on the Damariscotta River by Seal Cove, and is a popular destination for viewing birds and seals. On the autumn day that I explored it to gather reference photos, the fiery foliage contrasted beautifully with the jade-colored water.
Maine Mushrooms
Artist Statement
A color wheel of mushrooms, lichen, and flowers, foraged on the Harpswell Peninsula in Maine, painted with watercolor and ink. While 2021 was an unusually warm and dry year in Maine, by autumn, cooler temperatures and rain brought a burst of mushrooms and color back to the woods. It was my first autumn living in Maine, and I was floored by the biodiverse beauty of forests so close to my home. While many of the nature preserves in Maine are pocket-sized, they are invaluable for keeping ecosystems intact. I gathered specimens that I felt were aesthetically related, even if ecologically they varied quite a bit. The species, going clockwise from the purple mushroom, are: Blewit (Collybia nuda), a little brown mushroom that is beyond my ability to identify, Common Green shield lichen (Flavoparmelia caperata), Golden Fairy Spindle (Clavulinopsis fusiformis), Golden Waxcap (Hygrocybe chlorophana), Orange Waxcap (Hygrocybe aurantiosplendens) Scarlet Waxcap (Hygrocybe coccinea), the Sickener (Russula emetica), and a flower called Ghost Pipe (Monotropa uniflora).