The Lake House Dream That Has Inspired My Art

Hello!

I hope you are having a fantastic July! We have been having a lovely summer up at our island house and I found myself thinking back to where my love of coastal living really began. Recently, I found one of my old journals from college (back in 2001) and I found a very interesting entry that made me smile. They entry was about my future goals for my life. I had written“ I want to have a lake house and live by the water.” I could not believe I had written that goal and finally just achieved it over 20 years later. I feel like I have always loved being on the water but I can think of some specific places and moments that really seemed to shape and develop my love of coastal landscapes and the calm, peaceful feeling I get when I am by the water.

A photo I took years ago while visiting Michigan City

Michigan City , Indiana

When I was young almost every summer I would visit Michigan City, Indiana on Lake Michigan. Lake Michigan is a stunning and gorgeous lake with sandy beaches and beautiful dunes. My mom’s two sisters (Aunt Mac and Aunt Corki…those were their nicknames), each had their own incredible lake home three miles apart from each other. Their lake homes were totally different but each was amazing and represented their personal styles. Aunt Corki’s was filled with modern furniture and was bright, beachy, had lots of cool decks, was brand new and organized. Aunt Mac’s was a home from the 1940s that we thought was haunted by the ghost of the doctor who once lived there (Aunt Mac even swore she saw him once!) It was filled with vintage finds, huge white slip- covered sofas, eclectic art and lots of unique coffee table books and gourmet cooking magazines. These homes were my first real taste into interior design and really inspired my love for architecture and decorating,

Every summer in the 90’s and early 2000s, my cousins and I would visit and have the best time with my aunts and other family members. We would shop at the local outlet mall, lay out at the beach all day and come home with sandy feet and sunburns to a fabulous gourmet meal with fresh fruit from the local farm stand. My cousins and I still talk about our summer memories of being there, the evening poetry writing sessions, reading in a chair on Aunt Corki’s top deck (you could see the lake!), Aunt Mac’s amazing white slip- covered couches (yes, we all remember how luxurious they were!), the special and magical time we spent near the beach and just the feeling of calm and peace you get when being near the water. These early memories really became part of my core being as I matured and thought of what I wanted to have when I grew up.

Aunt Corki’s beach house

Aunt Mac’s beach house

The last time I went to Michigan City was around 2012. My Aunt Mac had been diagnosed with cancer and my Aunt Corki and her family soon after sold their lake house due to a busy life style with four kids. It felt like the end of an era for me. I remember starting to crave the feeling of being on the lake and I began painting a lot of coastal landscapes for fun based on pictures I had taken from previous summers of being there. I knew I had to get back to being on the water somehow.

Lake Erie Islands

A lot of people do not know that Ohio includes a couple of islands in the middle of Lake Erie that can only be accessible by boat or plane. I grew up going to Put- In -Bay island as a kid and my parents even had purchased property on a neighboring island on the lake. They did not build their lake house until late 2010. After they built their cottage I spent many summers there with my husband and daughters and eventually my husband and I decided to build our own island home down the road from them. ( I was interviewed about this on Lake Erie Living magazine a couple of years ago if you want to check it out.) The house we built is kind of a mixture between both of my aunts homes when I think about it. I love it being clean and organized, beachy but I love mixing vintage pieces and of course original art in my home. We live on the island during the weekends spring through fall when the ferries are running. I am lucky enough to be out here most of the summer also and enjoy the quaint island lifestyle that really inspires my paintings. Being on the island makes you feel like you are away from everything! It is so freeing and there is so much beauty to be seen around the islands. My coastal paintings have really become inspired by being on the island and I am so happy to finally have a constant connection to coastal living.

Looking back, I realize my love of coastal living did not begin when I started painting, it began back when I was a kid, spending summers on Lake Michigan, flipping through a Monet art book on Aunt Mac’s white sofas and soaking in the peaceful feeling of being near the water. Years later, I found that feeling as an adult, creating my own memories with my family at our island home on Lake Erie. These moments continue to shape my paintings today.

Lake Erie view

My island house that I call “Hydrangeas Hideaway”

Some of my Lake Erie inspired mini paintings inspired by life on the island.