Rachel Smith Maher ~ Artist and Poet

Thrilled to share not only did one of my poems find its way into the 3rd volume of Frost Meadow Review, but my painting "Katahdin Lakes & Hills" dons its cover!  Blessed beyond measure!  Want to read more poetry?  Visit my "other" website at www.rmaherfineart.com !! Click here to link to the Frost Meadow Review website!

Beyond thrilled to see my painting "Yellow Buoy" don the cover of the inaugural edition of Frost Meadow Review!  You can subscribe and be surprised by the literary treats inside by following this link: https://frostmeadowreview.com/shop/

The largest cruise ship to dock in Portland Maine made her way past Portland Headlight this morning.  My friend, the director of Cruise Maine USA, commissioned me to capture its maiden voyage to Portland Harbor.  The ship sits 200 feet above sea level, with Portland Headlight's height capping out at 100 feet.  Whereas the ship had never come to port, I had to use my imagination to capture her arrival on canvas.  I was fortunate to watch the ship's arrival at dawn this morning.  The sunrise was amazing!  Orange and bright...a perfect Maine summer morning!  This photo is quite grainy, but it captures the essence of the passage.  Here she is heading toward the Ocean Gateway terminal, with Fort Gorges on the horizon.  One more view...this from 310 feet above water.  The North Star viewing pod was a real hilight of the day.  Our tour graciously included a trip high above the city.  This photo looks back toward Portland Headlight. It...

My latest project is called  Using Your Wings So special, it needs its own website. Following my passion to promote art as a way to develop resilience in times of crises. We all need a new perspective on life sometimes,  don't we? Click on the link...view my latest body of work...consider the message...share your thoughts. Grateful, always, for those who follow my journey.                     Photo of the local hummingbird from last summer.  I love the shadow of her wings on her body.  Soon I will capture it on canvas. 

Yellow Buoy I 14'x16" Black metal frame/white mat $300 As we set up the board, I reached for the brightest Trivial Pursuit game piece.  My opponent commented, "Yellow!  That's a healing color!" That statement pops into my head more often than not when my mind has focused on the color yellow, even though more than a quarter century has passed since we played that game one Sunday afternoon. Sunflower Gold 8"x8" Modern Gallery wood/canvas $115 Golden, lemon, sunshine.    Light, glowing, dawn. Amber, saffron, sand. Crystal, canary, cream. Sunflower, Daffodil, Pansy, Crocus, Black-Eyed Susan, Daylily,  Coreopsis, Tansy, Buttercup. Just thinking about the essence of yellow, and all its alternative names, brings daylight to my soul.    Sunflower Barn  11"x14" Soft Gold metal frame w/mat $175                            ...

Celebrating pears!  Here are a few samples of the little original watercolors I'm painting each day for the 29 days of February. Matted to 5"x7", each will be sold for $29 to anyone who wants to join in the fun!   Send me an email ~~  I'll share all the details!  dragonflyartsofmaine@yahoo.com

Introducing the 29 Pears Project! For the 29 days of February, I'll be creating 29 pear paintings, each to be sold for $29. This special offer works this way: If you're interested in purchasing one of these original, 5"x7", matted, unframed pear paintings, send me a message, or comment below. The first person to make a request and send payment will receive pear painting #1. Second person will receive pear painting #2, and so on. Although you won't be able to see the pain ting prior to purchase, you can be assured that it will delight the viewer and, obviously, be on the subject of pears! The $29 purchase price includes all tax and shipping. I will post sample photos every few days. It is a fabulous way to own an original watercolor...or give as a gift! I am ever grateful for all who follow me on my artistic journey! Thanks so much!

Plan to visit Skillin's Greenhouses in Falmouth ME to see this new art show beginning Jan. 21st through Feb 17th.  Four wonderfully talented artists, and myself, will be displaying our watercolors, oils, and acrylics that represent our passion for color! 

New Year, new pear painting!  Each time I paint a pear, it is the same, yet oh so different.  Kinda like the years we see going by in life...many similarities:  each has the same 365 days, the same seasons, holidays, birthdays, etc. Yet each year brings an opportunity to do good, do better, and reach for the best.  And with the dawn of each day in this New Year, God's mercies refresh us anew. As is tradition with Dragonfly Arts...this little pear painting (5"x7" matted), one of the first of 2016, will be given away to the first person to email me and ask for it!  Dragonflyartsofmaine@yahoo.com And as always, I am grateful for those who are journeying along with me in my creative life! 

A special watercolor painted on a gallery-wrapped canvas over wooden stretcher bars...a fun new way for me to express my love of color and my home state of Maine!  The grounds of this lighthouse in Port Clyde are fabulous to explore...grassy knolls, pebbled beach, rocky shore.  Searching for sea glass is one of my favorite waterfront activities, and while hunting one day I turned to see the lighthouse from an unusual perspective.  Because of its unique and inviting ramp, Marshall Point Light is most often seen from the vantage point of approaching the ramp. This side view allowed the lighthouse keeper's home to reflect the setting western sun, as well as the time-worn rocks that support its foundation.  Perspective is an important skill to master.  How does one learn it?  More importantly, how does one master it? ~~12"x12" watercolor on canvas $300

I call this one "Beautiful Friends" because each pear has its own personality.  Look at the bright yellow one--third from the right.  She's the one who shines brightly and radiates joy.  The first one on the left, she's a little shy, but actively engaged in the group.  The little red one, she just makes everyone laugh.  Each one a bit different...collected together make a community of friends.  Beauty is defined in so many ways.  I prefer to seek the beauty of one's heart~~for therein lies truth.  I had so much fun painting this one, that I just had to do it again: Framed in muted green wooden frames, with custom double matting.  $400 each. 

I began this painting with my eyes closed.  Brush in hand, blank canvas before me, the first few strokes of blue paint went on without the guidance of sight.   The concept flowed from my spirit, through my brain, to my heart and out past my fingers holding the brush and onto the canvas.  I knew I wanted to capture the delicate edge of a butterfly wing.  I knew I wanted to use blue paint.  Beyond that, this painting simply emerged, one brushstroke at a time. The butterfly wings give an element of uplift and perspective.  While the hydrangeas were being formed, I felt a supernatural kind of connection to creativity itself.  When the falling petals in the lower right corner showed up, I began to think upon the legacy we leave when we leave this earth.  Then I felt the spirit of Cassidy Charette with me as I completed this piece...as it transformed from the message I had hoped to communicate to Cass's message:  Leave a legacy of Light. Taken...

Meet "Red", our resident Cardinal.  This painting was inspired by a photograph I took of him finding food for his young 'uns this Spring.  I discovered that the male cardinal feeds the hatchlings while the mama cardinal moves on to build a new nest for the next brood.  He's tilting his head to listen for worms.  Can you imagine having to listen to a worm crawl to get fed?  How quiet you would have to get to allow that to happen.  Quiet in the mind, heart, and soul.  And if you took the opportunity to get THAT quiet, what would you hear?

Phew!  For a while there I wasn't sure if my creative spirit would emerge from a season of storms and discouragement.  Sure, I painted a few pieces, finished a couple others...but honestly it was a mechanical process...without connection to my inner artist.  Today, however, I entered my studio filled with both inspiration and motivation!  And voila!  This beautiful dancer emerged from the end of my pencil, encouraged by the colors on my brush.  She's Dancing to the Light. Ever wonder why some things happen?? Like, when you show up somewhere, and wonder why you're there?  That happened to me yesterday.  I had the opportunity to connect with an old friend and watch her daughter dance in a competition.  While the conversation was wonderful, and the dancing amazing...more than once I asked myself what I was doing there.  I've never watched a dance competition before.  I asked myself, "wouldn't you rather be watching March Madness, cozy ...

Five years ago a young mother passed away from a terrible blood cancer.   Her friends and neighbors loved her so much they wanted to honor her memory in some quiet way.   They approached her widower to inquire about how best to accomplish their mission and ask his blessing.     He recalled how compassionate the nurses and staff at the hospital had been toward him and his 6 year old son.   “Something that reminds them of Liesel, her journey, and how they helped us through” was his best suggestion.   “Maybe a painting to hang at the hospital that was Liesel’s ‘home’ for so many months”, he offered.    The neighbors went away puzzled, as they were not personally familiar with any artists, nor did they think they could raise the funds to purchase such a memorial.   However, they prayed, and trusted that if it was meant to be, it would come about.   And it did.   The daughter of one of the neighbors had a friend who was just getting sta...

"Sunflower Dawn"~~framed with gold metal and white mat,  11"x14" $180 "Sunflower I" ~~ matted, unframed, ready for 11"x14" frame $135 Sunflowers have inspired me lately...as they do every fall.  Attempting to capture the fluidity and flexibility of the petals this year.  Still a work in progress, but my creative spirit is engaged and working!  Going with the flow...reducing expectations...breathing in and out...simple things, but they make the days just a bit easier.  

Someone once said, "When you're pressed, what's inside comes out".  I see this evidenced in my life.  I have been pressed on every side this summer...beyond what anyone should need to bear...and here's what emerges from my soul:  This painting is a result of showing up at my easel, putting brush to paper without prior conceptualization or thought, and seeing what happens.  What comes out.  The painting is meant to be open to interpretation...every viewer brings to the event their own feelings, imagination, eyes.  I see storm clouds...but they're moving.  I see rough seas becoming calm as they reach the shore.  I see land, dark and distant, but an opening--a cove--for safe approach.  I see reflections...mirrors to the moment. I see light...bright and glowing light...that remains constant despite the storm's attempt to obscure and cover.  That's what is inside me...an ever present knowing that Light is within reach, just beyond the darknes...

I went for a walk in my painting, 4 years after painting it.  And something miraculous happened.  Let me tell you the story... The painting, "Megan Jill", is a commissioned piece from 2009.  It was to depict not only the boat, whose namesake would be the recipient of the artwork, but also the quaint Maine village of Friendship Harbor.  Several of the wharves and buildings were owned by the same family as the lobster boat.  I took on the project, using a photograph as a reference, as I had never been to Friendship, Maine.   Fast forward to 2013...while on an trip up the coast of Maine, my friend suggested we visit the coastline north of Damariscotta.  We headed toward Friendship Harbor and I became excited to see it firsthand!  As we drove down the narrow, curved pavement (upper right portion of the painting) and onto the wharf and I felt like I was back in time.  Back to the days when I was sketching and painting the piece.  I recognized...

If we fail to pause, even for a moment, to bear witness to nature, why are we here?  Beyond cars and concrete and cappuccinos is a world that quietly marks the passing of time through light and tracks and new birth...melting snow, green buds, singing birds.  To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under Heaven.  This painting is of a large pine tree that sits on the edge of our property line.  I look out upon it as I sip my morning coffee.  And in certain seasons, the morning light illuminates the base of the trunk and lower branches.  It has always captured my attention--enchanting me with thoughts of  how light can make its way through a thicket to warm up the snowy forest floor.  Today, as I was silently watching through my window, a deer made its way behind the tree and rested just to the right of the trunk, nestled in the snow, taking a moment to her self.  Made me wonder if she would farrow early and bring forth an...

Twelve Noon on New Year's Day.  Happy 2014!  I absolutely love New Year's Day...its a new beginning, a fresh start.  Its a chance to grow, learn, change, appreciate, and love...just a little bit better, a little bit more, than the year before.  Building upon all that I learned, I journey forward into this budding pathway.  I have some new things I want to try, some new thoughts I want to think.  Join me in this voyage we call life...the adventure of a brand new year!   AND, as is tradition at Dragonfly Arts, the first painting of the year ("Comes the Dawn" pictured above) is given to the first person who asks for it...free!  (This one is painted on aquaboard and is 5"x7") My email is dragonflyartsofmaine@yahoo.com