I think, in this world there are perhaps three kinds of people– those who love the desert, ocean lovers, and lake/river people.  Mr. F and I are definitely not desert people and it’s taken us a while to realize we aren’t ocean people either.  Both have their beauty, yes, but neither stir our souls the way a crystal clear mountain lake or river can.  The love of lakes, for me, happened I think in childhood.  I spent a good deal of time every summer on a lake– either at camp or with my aunt and uncle who lived on a tiny lake in Northern Florida.  Two years ago we spent a summer on a lake in Idaho and it remains one of my favorite spot in all of our travels.

There is an easiness to lake life that creates an ease with the people around you– neighbors seem more neighborly, interactions are more likely to take place from boat to shoreline than by telephone or email.

 

Maine artist Amy Bennett‘s paintings capture the feeling of this unique existence.  The artist begins by meticulously creating dioramas, which she then paints in oil on panel.  The scale of the dioramas, when recreated in paint, gives the feeling of a world created by a child– doll houses and toy boats and tiny people.  It makes me recall the innocence of those days, how everything appeared very soft, and fresh, and innocent and I was discovering a world that would come to be a part of me.

To see more of Amy Bennett‘s work, please visit her website.

All images are via the artists’s website.  Artist found via The Jealous Curator.