remix
The iconic American painter Winslow Homer was born in Boston, but his spiritual home was Prouts Neck, Me., a rugged peninsula and exclusive community 12 miles south of Portland in the town of Scarborough. Homer painted some of his most famous seascapes there, in a hunter green clapboard cottage overlooking the coastline. After a $2.8 million overhaul by the Portland Museum of Art, the Winslow Homer Studio is opening to the public this month. The museum bought the two-story landmark in 2006 from the artist’s great-grandnephew, Charles Homer Willauer. (The museum’s association with Homer began with an exhibit of his work in 1893, and today it owns 17 of his paintings and hundreds of his illustrations.) Visitors can tour the artist’s wood-paneled living room, where black-and-white photographs of him and his family sit beside a brick fireplace, as well as his ‘‘factory,’’ a painting room that his brother Charles Jr. added in 1890. A wraparound balcony on the second floor reveals the spectacular ocean view that inspired, among other paintings, ‘‘Lost on the Grand Banks,’’ which Bill Gates bought for more than Dhs 110 million in 1998, and the masterpiece ‘‘Weatherbeaten,’’ which is now part of the museum’s permanent collection. Studio tours will be offered September through December and April through June, departing from the Portland Museum of Art (; portlandmuseum.org; Dhs 200). The show ‘‘Weatherbeaten: Winslow Homer and Maine,’’ featuring more than 35 of Homer’s oil and watercolor paintings, is on view at the museum through Dec. 30. Overnight visitors can book a room at the Black Point Inn (blackpointinn.com), a hotel dating from 1878 near the Cliff Walk, a scenic coastal trail that passes below Homer’s studio. JILL FERGUS
Artist in residence Clockwise from top: the brick fireplace in the living room of the Winslow Homer Studio; the wraparound balcony and its view; the 1886 oil painting ‘‘Eight Bells.’’
the new new list
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Chennai is the new Mumbai
Bridges are the new Parks
Walking is the new Driving
India’s emerging motor city — BMW, Ford and Nissan all have Chennai factories — is revving up. New arrivals include tony retailers (Louis Vuitton, Burberry) and lots of hotels, from big brands (J. W. Marriott, Park Hyatt) and local chains like Leela, which just opened a palatial 326-room retreat on the Bay of Bengal.
Get ready for the High Line Effect. Proposals for copycat projects that would ‘‘green’’ disused bridges and railways are popping up in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. And Chicago recently unveiled plans for the Bloomingdale Trail (above), a park on three miles of elevated track on the Northwest Side.
Kick your car to the curb. In southwest Portugal, explore one of Europe’s best-preserved coastal areas on the new 150-mile Rota Vicentina trail. Or walk the entire Welsh coastline, past tiny harbor towns and pubs once haunted by Dylan Thomas, on the recently opened 870-mile Wales Coast Path (above).
homer, clockwise from top: Trentbellphotography (2); addison gallery of american art, phillips academy. new new list, from left: simon reddy/alamy; City of Chicago; Visit wales.
Room With a View