Mount Pisgah Westmore above Willoughby
— — the mountain the village wakes up against.
Not only on a wall.
“Westmore sits at the north end of the lake, a small village of a few hundred people gathered by the water. Pisgah rises directly behind it, the long ridge filling the south sky, the South Cliff dropping into the lake just out of sight from the post office. Mornings the mountain catches first light on the upper face while the village stays in shadow. The view doesn't ask anything of you. from the studio
Mount Pisgah Westmore above Willoughby, 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.
Westmore is a town of roughly 350 people on the north end of Lake Willoughby in Orleans County, Vermont, in the Northeast Kingdom. Mount Pisgah rises 2,751 feet directly above the village to the south, its long ridge filling the sky above the lake. The North Trail to Pisgah's summit leaves Route 5A about a mile and a half south of the village. The town centre holds a post office, a small beach, and the historic Willoughvale Inn on the lakeshore. Most of the surrounding land is held in Willoughby State Forest, 7,300 acres of cliff, forest, and lake.
From the village the mountain reads differently through the day. At sunrise the upper face of Pisgah catches first light while the lake and the village stay in cliff-shadow for another hour. By mid-morning the South Cliff is in full sun and the lake holds the reflection upside down. Late afternoon the ridge throws a hard line of shade across the water and the far shore. In October the hardwoods on Pisgah's lower flanks turn deep red and orange against the dark spruce on the upper slopes, a colour pattern photographers come north for each fall.
Westmore runs on the lake's calendar. The water holds ice through most of March; the loons return in late April or early May; the village beach is busy from late June through Labour Day. Peregrine falcons nest on Pisgah's South Cliff each spring and rangers close climbing routes from roughly mid-March through July. Leaf colour on the lower slopes typically peaks in the first week of October. The Willoughvale Inn and the few summer rentals along Route 5A close by November. The lake freezes hard most winters and ice fishing huts return.