AFA 18th Anniversary

18th Anniversary 124 www.afamag.com | w ww.incollect.com John Marin (1870–1953), Small Point, Maine, White Mountains in the Distance, 1915. Watercolor over graphite on textured watercolor paper, 16 x 19 inches. Arkansas Arts Center Foundation Collection; Gift of Norma B. Marin (2013.018.022). Maine was a place of creative magic for John Marin. At the suggestion of his friend, the etcher Ernest Haskell, Marin traveled from his home in New Jersey to Maine for the first time in the summer of 1914. He painted along the coast of West Point, near Phippsburg. Over the years, Marin and his family would gradually shift summering places in Maine, further north to more and more remote areas. There the artist could work in peace. During the summer of 1915, Marin moved to the nearby Small Point. He loved the juxtaposition there of sea and forest. That same year Marin shocked his dealer and mentor, Alfred Stieglitz, by spending his year’s income to buy an island off Small Point Harbor. The little forested island proved an impractical place to stay, since it had no source of water, but it was beautiful to paint. Later, Marin moved north again to Deer Isle, and in the 1930s, the family began spending summers on remote Cape Split, where the artist purchased a home the family occupies to this day. 5