Choosing twelve paintings for a calendar is harder than it sounds. Each one needs to work on its own as a beautiful image, but together they need to tell a story — the story of a year moving through seasons, light changing, the natural world cycling through its rhythms.
For the 2027 calendar, I selected paintings that I feel represent not just the seasons but the feeling of each month as I experience it here in Maine. Here’s a brief look at the twelve paintings and what each one means to me.
January — Winter Silence
A snow-covered field at dusk, with the last light turning the snow pale blue and the sky above it fading from gold to deep indigo. January is the quietest month. The world is stripped down to its essentials, and there’s a beauty in that austerity that I find deeply peaceful. This painting uses a limited palette — just three or four colors — and the white of the paper does most of the work.
February — Ice on the Lake
The lake where I live freezes solid by February, and the ice creates its own landscape — cracks, bubbles, patterns of clear and opaque, the occasional dark window where you can see down into the water. This close-up study of ice on the lake surface is one of my most abstract pieces, playing with transparency and texture in a way that’s very specific to the medium of watercolor.
March — First Crocuses
March in Maine is still mostly winter, but there’s a moment — usually late in the month — when the first crocuses push through the frozen ground. This painting is small and intimate: three purple crocus blooms against the bare brown earth, with just a hint of snow melting in the background. It’s a painting about hope and stubbornness.
April — Mud Season Light
April is mud season. It’s not glamorous. But the light starts to change — longer days, warmer angles — and there’s a quality of anticipation in the air. This painting captures the soft, hazy light of an April afternoon over a still-bare forest, with warm tones starting to creep into the cool winter palette.
May — Spring Unfurling
May is when Maine finally, truly turns green. This painting of new birch leaves — translucent, yellow-green, backlit by morning sun — captures the explosive energy of spring arriving all at once.
June — Peonies
June is peony season. This close-up study of a fully opened peony in gouache captures the dense, velvety richness of the petals at their peak. It’s one of the most colorful pieces in the calendar.
July — Casco Bay Morning
The painting that inspired the whole calendar. That twenty-minute window of silver-blue water and pink sky just after sunrise over Casco Bay. Summer in Maine at its most luminous.
August — Heirloom Tomatoes
A still life of heirloom tomatoes from the Falmouth farmers’ market — deep reds, bright oranges, streaky greens. August is abundance, and this painting celebrates it.
September — Autumn Approaching
The first touches of gold and red appearing in the maples, with the dark green of spruce and pine providing contrast. September is the month when you start to feel the turn.
October — Peak Foliage
Full autumn glory. A hillside of maples in every shade of red, orange, and gold, with a white church steeple rising through the color. This is the postcard moment, and I leaned into it completely.
November — After the Leaves
Late November, when the leaves have fallen and the trees reveal their architecture. A painting of bare birch trunks against a gray sky, with a carpet of brown and gold leaves on the ground. Quiet, contemplative, and beautiful in its restraint.
December — Harbor Lights
A view of Portland’s working harbor at dusk in December, with warm lights reflecting on dark water and the shapes of lobster boats at their moorings. Winter on the coast — cold air, warm lights, the promise of home.
Get the Calendar
The 2027 Molly Frantzen Art Calendar is available now.
Many of the paintings featured in the calendar are also available as giclee prints and originals in my shop.
