"Cove Road" Part of the Current Show at the Hilltop Coffee Shop

By Carol McCracken  (Post # 658)

Before he’d even finished hanging his 13 landscapes earlier this month at the Hilltop Coffee Shop on the Hill, Joe Fourner sold two of them.  Fournier who is known well for his kitchen skills, tries to enter a show at least once a year.  Last year he was in a St. Lawrence Arts Center show and the year before that at the Arts in the Barn show in Cushing.

The scenes are landscapes of the Greater Munjoy Hill area.  It’s a show full of nostalgia and familiar scenes for those wanting to remember the simpler days of   yesteryear; like MHN.com   The favorite of MHN.com is one of the two watercolors already sold.  It’s a portrait of a small house with a pond for a backyard and a long driveway leading up to the house.  The title is “32nd of January” which doesn’t exist on our calendar. Despite the snow surrounding the little house, the sunlight around it is warm and there are touches of colors  – maybe spring isn’t that far away after all.  It reminds MHN.com of a family summer cottage near Augusta where she spent all of her summer vacations – yesterday. There was a long drive-way leading up to it and the Three Cornered Pond behind the cottage.  MHN.com is the richer for those days.

Fournier is a self-taught artist.   Tongue in cheek, he says he studied art in kindergarden and that was his last formal art education. Inspirations for his art are Edward Hopper and Andrew Wyeth.  He devoted time  copying their paintings and others.  A Hill native, he’s taking a break from his chef’s career  to do some painting and to  work at Rosemont Market & Bakery on the Hill.

Stella Mange-Hernandez, who co- owns the Hilltop Coffee Shop as well as BarLola said that the wall space at Hilltop is reserved nine months in advance for art shows.  To keep the walls well-maintained, artists are asked to contribute 20% of their profits from  sold work to the Shop.   The Hilltop Coffee Shop is open 7 days a week.

Jennifer Wilkey, an artist, at the Hilltop said:  “It’s easy to walk past art.  You have to spend some time with it to get to know it.”

Please visit www. joefournier.blogspot.com for more information.