I’m Jake Newman. The Portland Logbook is my love letter to this city: the food worth hunting down, the history that refuses to die, the corners you only find if you’re paying attention.

America's Greatest Painter Lived in Scarborough

Sponsored by the Portland Museum of Art

One of the greatest painters this country ever produced made some of his best work about twenty minutes down the road: Winslow Homer.

Now, I don't often mention it, but I’m an avid oil painter. So this one’s genuinely exciting for me.

If the name doesn't ring a bell, you've still seen the work. Homer painted Gulf Stream, the man alone in a small boat with sharks circling. He painted the big, brutal sea rescues, men hauling each other out of the surf off the Maine coast. His paintings hang in the Met, the National Gallery, and the MFA in Boston. Not only a regional favorite. One of the greats, and he made a lot of it here.

And he did it out on Prouts Neck, a gated stretch of Scarborough coast you can't normally get to. But you can if you take the studio tour with the PMA. I did just that last week. The studio was a carriage house before architect John Calvin Stevens converted it for Homer in 1884. He slept in an old horse stall, hung a Medusa on the doorknocker to scare off visitors, and apparently posted signs warning of snakes and mice to keep admirers from coming too close. Outside, a path takes you down toward the rocks, past the beach roses, to one of the very spots where Homer painted Weatherbeaten. You can stand there and look at the same coast he was looking at nearly 130 years ago.

Here's the part most people don't know. In the 1880s, after he'd already made his name, Homer brought a printer up from New York and returned to some of his most famous pictures, including The Life Line and Eight Bells, working them onto copper plates. That's etching. You scratch the image into a metal plate, ink it, and print it. Slow, unforgiving work, and a painter at the top of his game doesn't usually bother. Homer did, over and over, right here.

Unfortunately, the prints almost never get shown.

But the PMA is showing them now, side by side with the paintings they came from, which is exactly the kind of thing that makes the whole show worth seeing.

Winslow Homer: Painter, Etcher is up at the PMA on Congress Square from July 3 through October 18 and is included with museum admission. Just note, you’ll need a timed-entry ticket. Get exhibition tickets here.

Then once you see the paintings and etchings in person, go do the studio tour. You’ll take a van from the museum out to Prouts Neck. It’s 2.5 hours round-trip, $75 for the general public and $40 for PMA members and $25 for students. It sells out. Don’t sit on it.

Book a Winsor Homer Studio Tour

My Friend Sean Made an Album

I met Sean Oshima through mutual friends, and the thing I remember most is that we kept accidentally matching. Same colors, same look, over and over, to the point where it started to feel suspicious. Turns out Sean sews a lot of his own clothes, which made the whole thing both more impressive and more annoying.

Anyway, that’s how I met Sean Oshima, one half of the Oshima Brothers.

If The Logbook is partly about finding the local things worth paying attention to, this is one of them.

If you don’t know them, you should. Sean and his brother Jamie grew up in Whitefield and make alt-pop with harmonies you can’t fake or hire. Two brothers who’ve sung together their whole lives, producing all of it themselves, every song, every video, out of a spare bedroom studio.

Their new album is called In Orbit.

That’s the part I love. It doesn’t feel like something polished by a giant machine. It feels handmade. Carefully built, a little strange, very catchy, and completely theirs.

I’ve seen them play more than twenty times. Back Cove shows around town, pretty much wherever they are. Sometimes you’ll catch me behind the merch table selling shirts.

My favorite is Espresso, an indie pop song with some funk running underneath. It’s the one I keep coming back to and singing in the shower, with the same level of obsession some people have with Sabrina Carpenter’s Espresso.

Put the album on this week. And if you get the chance to see them live, go. They make an absurd amount of sound for two people, and it’s even better live, in a room. I’ll probably be somewhere near the merch table.

In Orbit is out now, everywhere you listen.

In Orbit - Spotify

In Orbit - Apple Music

THIS WEEKS CONDITIONS
☀️ SUNRISE: 5:03 AM
🌅 SUNSET: 8:27 PM
✨ Local Opening’s Coming Soon : Cobblestone Coffee
✨ Local Favorite “Shop” of the Week: Amity’s
✨ Local Artist of the Week: Elizabeth Fraser

Portside Real Estate Group

Thinking of Moving?

🏡 Hi its me Jake! I write The Portland Logbook, but I also help people buy and sell homes in and around Portland.

If a move is on your mind, I’m always happy to help you think it through.

Lets get a coffee!

🐾 Adoptable Buddies of the Week! 🐾

🐶 Murphy – 2 yrs
A sweet, slightly shy dog who loves being outdoors and is happiest on an adventure. Friendly, active, and looking for someone who enjoys exploring as much as he does.

🐱 Riley – 11 yrs
A charming old gentleman who can be a little grumbly at first. Give him some time and you'll find a sweet, affectionate cat underneath. Best in a quieter home without young kids.

🐱 Ummi – 3 yrs
A shy Tiny Tiger who needs patience and a calm home to build confidence. The kind of cat who takes her time, but rewards it with quiet companionship.

🐕 Interested? Check them out here

If the link doesn’t open anymore, it means they’ve already been adopted!