With rich coloration and lively brushwork, Jonas Lie offers an idyllic scene along the Maine Coast. Four sloops sail together with a fifth nearer the shore, mainsails full in a light wind, along a calm but active sea.
Lie's trademark palette of blue-greens and tones of orange dominate the work, through with greater contrast than many of his pieces. The tones are deeper and more jewel-like with sapphire fading to emerald as the sea falls under cloud, while the sun illuminates the white bark of a single birch tree, nestled in among the rocky shore. Deep sienna with impasto touches forms nearby small islands creating the channel through which our sailboats pass.
Jonas Lie became known for dynamic, impressionistic scenes like this one, painted during the many summers he spent on the coast of New England. The great majority of these works are of unidentified specific locations that he personally discovered, using his brush to depict the endlessly changing interplay of sea and land with dramatic perspective and powerful use of color.
