Plein air painting — working outdoors, on location, painting directly from life — is one of the most exhilarating and humbling things an artist can do. There’s no photograph between you and the subject. The light is changing in real time. The wind is trying to steal your paper. A wave might splash your palette. You have maybe an hour or two before the light has shifted so much that you’re painting a different scene.
It’s uncomfortable, unpredictable, and absolutely essential to my practice. Every plein air session teaches me something I can’t learn in the studio. It trains my eye to work faster, simplify what I see, and commit to color decisions without overthinking.
Maine’s coast is one of the great plein air painting destinations in America, and I’m lucky enough to have it as my backyard. Here are the spots I return to again and again, and what makes each one worth the trip with a paintbox.
Portland Head Light, Cape Elizabeth
The most painted and photographed lighthouse in Maine, and for good reason. Portland Head Light sits on a dramatic granite headland with the Atlantic crashing below, and the composition is spectacular from nearly every angle. The lighthouse itself is a beautiful structure — white tower, red-roofed keeper’s house — set against a backdrop of ocean and sky that changes color every hour.
I paint here most often in the early morning or late afternoon, when the light rakes across the granite and the lighthouse glows warm against the cooler tones of the water. The challenge is that it’s popular — on a summer morning, you’re painting alongside photographers, tourists, and other artists. I’ve learned to find the less obvious vantage points, slightly away from the main walkway, where the composition is just as good but the crowds are thinner.
What I love about painting here: the granite. The texture and color of the rock — warm grays, rusty oranges, cool blue-violets — give watercolor so much to work with.
Kettle Cove, Cape Elizabeth
Just south of Portland Head, Kettle Cove is a small, sheltered beach that’s less dramatic than the headlands but beautifully intimate. The beach faces south, which means gorgeous backlighting in the morning and warm, direct light in the afternoon.
I come here to paint the simpler compositions — the curve of the beach, the line where the water meets the sand, the distant offshore islands. It’s a place where the subject matter is minimal enough that the painting becomes about color and atmosphere rather than architectural detail. The water here tends toward the pale green and turquoise that looks almost Mediterranean on a calm summer day.
What I love about painting here: the simplicity. When the subject is this quiet, the painting has to do its work through color and mood alone.
East End Beach & Eastern Promenade, Portland
The Eastern Promenade is a 68-acre park that runs along Portland’s eastern shoreline with sweeping views across Casco Bay to the Calendar Islands. East End Beach, at the base of the prom, is one of the best spots in the city for catching the sunrise over the water.
I’ve painted here more times than I can count. The Promenade offers different compositions at every turn — the harbor with its working boats, the islands in the distance, the city skyline to the south, the rocky shoreline with tidal pools and seaweed. In autumn, the trees along the promenade turn gold and red, adding a warm frame to the cool blue of the bay.
What I love about painting here: the accessibility. It’s fifteen minutes from my studio, there’s always something happening on the water, and the light over the bay is different every single time.
Wolfe’s Neck Woods State Park, Freeport
A short drive north of Portland, Wolfe’s Neck is a quiet gem — 233 acres of coastal trails winding through old-growth white pine, hemlock, and mixed hardwood forest, with views across the Harraseeket River and Casco Bay.
This is where I come to paint forest interiors and the quiet transition zones where woods meet water. The light filtering through the pine canopy creates dappled, shifting patterns that are challenging and addicting to paint. The Casco Bay Trail loops along the shoreline and offers compositions where the dark forest frames bright glimpses of the bay.
What I love about painting here: the contrast. Dark forest, bright water. Cool shade, warm sunlight. It pushes me to use the full tonal range of my watercolors.
Two Lights State Park, Cape Elizabeth
Named for the twin lighthouses nearby, Two Lights is a rocky headland where you can sit on the granite and watch the open Atlantic. The coastline here is rugged and exposed — big waves, dramatic spray, and the kind of raw ocean energy that painters have been coming to Maine to capture since the 19th century.
Winslow Homer painted a few miles from here, at Prouts Neck, and you can understand why. The water at Two Lights moves with a power that demands attention. I paint it fast — quick watercolor studies of the wave action, the spray, the light shifting through the foam. These aren’t careful, controlled paintings. They’re records of a moment, made in real time, full of the energy and unpredictability of the ocean itself.
What I love about painting here: the energy. This is where I go when I want my paintings to feel alive.
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Tips for Plein Air Painting on the Maine Coast
See the Results
Many of the paintings in my Maine Landscapes collection started as plein air studies or are directly informed by on-location sessions at these spots.
For more about Maine’s artistic heritage: Why Maine Has Inspired Artists for Centuries →
