Isles of Shoals from Star Island
— — low islands held by open Atlantic.
Not only on a wall.
“A group of nine small islands six miles off the coast of New Hampshire and Maine, straddling the state line. The view from Star Island looks north across the channel to Smuttynose, Cedar, and Appledore, with the long white porch of the Oceanic Hotel in the foreground. Built in 1873, the hotel still anchors the island as a conference centre. Wind, granite, and open water in every direction.
Isles of Shoals from Star Island, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The Isles of Shoals are a group of nine small islands roughly six miles off the coast of New Hampshire and Maine, divided by the state line. Four islands lie in New Hampshire (Star, White, Lunging, and Seavey) and five in Maine (Appledore, Smuttynose, Cedar, Duck, and Malaga). Star Island holds the Oceanic Hotel, opened in 1873 and now operated as a conference and retreat centre by the Star Island Corporation, affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Association and the United Church of Christ. The view north from Star reaches across the channel to Smuttynose, Cedar, and Appledore.
The islands are exposed granite and metamorphic ledge, scoured by ice and weather and rising only a few metres above the high-water line. There are almost no trees, and the salt wind keeps the vegetation low. Smuttynose, the second-largest island, holds the small stone Haley House from around 1750, one of the oldest stone houses on the New England coast. Appledore, the largest, hosts the Shoals Marine Laboratory, run jointly by Cornell University and the University of New Hampshire since 1966. The light at the high points is unusually clear.
Public access in summer runs from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on the Isles of Shoals Steamship Company, with day trips and seasonal stops at Star Island. The Oceanic Hotel hosts week-long conferences from late June through early September, and offers limited day-visit hours when the schedule allows. The Star Island Corporation has owned and operated the island since 1915. Private boats can land at Gosport Harbor between Star and Cedar. The other islands are largely closed to casual landing, with Appledore reserved for the marine lab.