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Stellar Art

She may be 99, but Stell Shevis, master enamellist and life-long artist, continues to look for new experiences and creative outlets.

Marine Art from the New York Historical Society

The New-York Historical Society has sent an impressive array of its marine and maritime art holdings, mostly 19th century, to the Portland Museum Art for the 2014-2015 winter season. “The Coast & the Sea: Marine and Maritime Art in America” offers an excellent opportunity to take in a clutch of sea-going artifacts, plus ships, seascapes, and portraits by a top-notch lineup of painters.

Maine Course - Sea Salt

If you heat your house with wood or own a woodstove, winter is the perfect time to make sea salt. The process, explains Karen O. Zimmermann, is simple: collect salt water in buckets and boil it down in a large pan on the top of your woodstove.

Two Maine Rock Gardens

Two Maine gardeners, Vickie Cunningham in South Bristol, and Douglas Cole in Rockport, have worked magic with rocks and stones and a ledge or two.

Summer Eats

Seafood shacks have strung together a summer narrative for writer Deborah Corey's family. Each spring she and her family wait for the seafood shacks to open, marking each of their opening days on the family calendar. When Corey envisions a map of the Maine coast, she sees the shacks marked by red thumbtacks.

Maine Course

Whelks are not one of Maine’s more glamorous seafood offerings; gnarly and intimidating they require careful cleaning and preparation, including getting them out of their spiral shells. But as food writer Nancy Harmon Jenkins explains, once the hard work is done, whelks make a tasty meal.

The Art of Richard Estes

Known for his paintings of the city, this realist long ago added Maine to his repertoire.

A Ticket to Ride, the Boston Whaler

Why does every teenager want a Boston Whaler? Freedom, adventure, and fun play a big part.

Saltwater Foodways: Martha’s June Jottings

Martha Ballard, a midwife who lived in the Hallowell area of Maine at the turn of the eighteenth century, kept a journal of her daily life for 27 years. Looking back at the entries is a wonderful way to learn about early gardening and food preparation. Food writer and Contributing Editor Sandy Oliver takes a look at what Martha was doing in June.

Thoreau in the Maine Woods

Although Henry David Thoreau published his book about the Maine woods 150 years ago, his vision and words still resonate today. Thoreau’s experience of the Maine woods was a confrontation with himself, with humans’ place on the planet, and with the meaning of civilization.

Adventures in a Boston Whaler

Adventures in a Boston Whaler shaped an artist’s world vision

Small House, Big View

An environmentalist sees the rebuild of his shorefront home as an opportunity to align the house with his principles. The new house is small and extremely efficient.

The BrightBuilt Home

An architectural firm partnered with a modular homebuilder to come up with cost-effective and energy-efficient homes.

Freshwater Stone

At Freshwater Stone Jeff Gamlin turns ordinary rock into useful works of art

Rebirth for a historic mill

An old mill in Freedom is a model for adaptive re-use. After a 40-year vacancy, it is filled with new life, including an alternative school and a restaurant.