Looking for Otters in Otter Cove

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Philip Koch, Otter Cove II, oil on panel, 16 x 20 inches, 2008, Somerville Manning Gallery, 

Greenville, DE

Above is my painting Otter Cove II that I recently along with the oil below Yellow Arcadia delivered to Somerville Manning Gallery when they needed additional work for my recent exhibition. 

While I was at the gallery a couple asked me where I'd gotten the idea for the painting. I told him about my going to Otter Cove on Mt. Desert Island in Maine to do landscapes. I explained it was the spot from which one of my heroes, the 19th century painter Frederic Church had painted one of his best known oils of the island. What I failed to mention was I also hoped I'd get to see otters frolicking in the cove. Trouble was: no otters.


Philip Koch, Mount Desert Island, vine charcoal, 5 x 13 inches, 2003


But the rhythm of the shore and islands more than compensated for the lack of aquatic wildlife. I made the above drawing with my easel set up on the bridge over the Otter Cove inlet. It accurately describes the Cove's natural features. Only some of its features were selected for the oil painting I made from the drawing



Philip Koch, Yellow Arcadia, oil on panel, 30 x 40 inches, 2006, Somerville Manning Gallery, 
Greenville, DE



Another painting based loosely on the day I made drawings at Otter Cove was Yellow Arcadia. It's mostly based on memories using Otter Cove as a jumping off point for my imagination. The rounded islands in its distance were suggested by the far island in the charcoal drawing.



Philip Koch, Mount Desert Cliff, vine charcoal, 9 x 9 inches, 2003

 This drawing was made looking immediately to the left of the view in
the first drawing, Mount Desert Island. My eye was drawn to the statuesque tall pine and the light sandy cliffs in the forground.

While I was working on this one we encountered a large fox who wanted to cross the bridge badly enough that he risked walking only 10 feet from us. He or she was large, quite beautiful, and definitely wild as they come. I wondered it and its friends had something to do with the lack of otters in Otter Cove.

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