A boulder strewn blueberry field with a long view to the ocean was just the kind of scene I was hoping to find in this area of Maine. Such a field might be evocative of the 19th or early 20th century boulder-strewn landscape paintings that I like so much (such as John Sloan’s Dogtown paintings) and it might also speak of a much older setting where openings were maintained in an otherwise forested landscape by the practice of burning the wild blueberries patches. In recent decades mowing has replaced fire as the preferred wild blueberry pruning method, so most boulders have been removed to facilitate it. The aesthetic isn’t at all the same without them. That makes this view all the more special.
Painted on location. Grand Manan Island spans the horizon.
