Flip to a page of Vendome Press’s new publication, The Maine House II, to a photograph taken by Maura McEvoy of white, antique wood floors with matching walls and a bookshelf tucked into the corner of the room. Two titles peeking out of the bookshelf are Van Gogh at Work and A Life of Picasso. The gallery-esque walls in this home are covered floor-to-ceiling in art—a print of a hot dog; a charcoal face, textured lines rising out of the canvas; primary colors; a woman’s figure. The walls say, “Hush, hush.” They say, “Look!”—they demand you do.
Flip to another page in The Maine House II. Warm wood walls with a mariner blue couch and felted sailor pillows. A cobalt blue coffee-table book in front of a granite fireplace with a patinaed wood mantle. A tease of forest outside the window.
Again, and land on a living room where a portrait of George Washington wears a pink, sparkling opera mask. Old shoes line a dresser’s surface like statues. A Greek column stands in the corner—Corinthian? Doric? Ionic? No. The frieze is a circular shell resting atop the shaft. Again, a red house by the sea, old shingles that at once conjure nostalgia. Again, a house with birch wood beams. Again, a bedroom with a wood stove and an old chest—as if belonging to some esteemed sea captain—resting magnificently at the foot of the bed. Again, and again, and again. The Maine House II, created by Maura McEvoy, Basha Burwell, and Kathleen Hackett, captures in intimate photographs and words several Maine homes filled with heart and history. Homes whose artisanal woodworking, antique rugs, model ships, flowers in unexpected places, music stands, and art come together tightly in a dough to be rolled out to a recipe of rusticator spirit, hard work, and poetic tenderness. As oral history is an important form of storytelling; so too is that of the gentle slope of an old Maine home, the well-traveled paths leading to the sea.
Following the booming success of The Maine House, the trio returns with their highly anticipated sequel, The Maine House II. The mission in this second publication aims to protect Maine’s architectural history, while also honoring their caretakers’ steadfast endurance. It will ask you to care about Maine’s time-honored traditions and how they are adapting to a changing world. And of course, the beauty that lies within these anticipated pages is the ultimate love letter to our rugged and wild state.
