Still Waters, Bold Art: The Story Behind MaineBound Designs’ Perkins Cove Retro Art Canvas Print

By MaineBound Designs | Ogunquit, Maine Wall Art Series

 
There are places in New England that have a way of stopping people in their tracks. Not because they are dramatic or overwhelming, but because they are so perfectly themselves — so complete in their charm — that you feel the need to slow down and take it all in. Perkins Cove in Ogunquit, Maine is exactly that kind of place. A small, sheltered harbor tucked just south of the village, it holds lobster boats and sailboats on still water, colorful cottages and seafood shacks lining the shore, and a legendary hand-operated wooden drawbridge that has been swinging open for fishing vessels since 1941. It is one of the most painted, photographed, and visited spots on the entire Maine coast — and when MaineBound Designs set out to honor it with a Perkins Cove retro art canvas print poster, it felt less like a creative decision and more like an obligation.

A Harbor With Roots Going Back 400 Years

Long before the lobster rolls and art galleries, Perkins Cove was simply known as Fish Cove — a practical name for a practical place. English fishermen first began settling here in the 1620s, on land that had previously been home to the Native Abenaki peoples. For centuries, the cove served as a quiet working harbor where local fishermen launched their dories, hauled their traps, and repaired their nets in the shadow of the rocky Maine shoreline.

Everything changed in the late 1800s when artists began to take notice. In 1888, artists attracted to Perkins Cove’s picturesque qualities as a New England fishing inlet established a colony through the efforts of Massachusetts-born marine artist Charles Woodbury. Woodbury opened an academy for his students in 1898 — the Ogunquit Summer School of Drawing and Painting — eventually converting some of the surrounding fishing shacks into living space where artists obtained room and board. Painters and fishermen shared the same small peninsula, side by side, each doing what they did best. By the end of the 19th century, Perkins Cove had built a firm reputation as one of the most creatively fertile spots on the New England coast.

The cove continued to grow and change through the 20th century. In 1935–36, Perkins Cove was dredged to allow larger boats access to the protected mooring, and in 1944 the village replaced an earlier footbridge with a proper drawbridge. That wooden double-leaf draw footbridge — noted as the only remaining manually operated wooden draw footbridge of its kind in the United States — was designated a historic structure in 2000 and remains one of the most photographed landmarks on the entire southern Maine coast to this day.

🎨 Where Fishermen and Artists Shared the Same Shore

Perkins Cove is one of the rare places in America where a working fishing harbor and a thriving art colony grew up side by side — and both are still alive today. The same rocky outcroppings and churning waves that guided lobster boats home for four centuries have inspired generations of painters, sculptors, and printmakers. The Ogunquit Art Colony, founded here in 1898, helped establish southern Maine as one of the most important centers for American art in the early 20th century. Today, tiny galleries tucked between seafood shacks and boat slips carry on that creative tradition — making Perkins Cove one of the only places in New England where you can buy a lobster roll and a watercolor painting in the same thirty steps.

Why MaineBound Designs Chose Perkins Cove

At MaineBound Designs, every new canvas print starts with the same core question: does this place have a story powerful enough to deserve a piece of art? Perkins Cove doesn’t just clear that bar — it raises it. This is a place with four centuries of history layered into a single small harbor. It has the working waterfront energy of a real Maine fishing village and the quiet creative soul of one of America’s oldest art colonies, all wrapped around a postcard-perfect cove that looks almost too beautiful to be real.

There was also an undeniable visual case for Perkins Cove. The sailboats and lobster boats resting on mirror-calm water. The colorful coastal cottages reflecting in the harbor. The iconic wooden drawbridge framing the narrow channel entrance. The green hills rolling down to the rocky shoreline. These are bold, graphic images — exactly the kind of strong shapes and vivid colors that the retro travel poster style was designed to capture. When you look at the Perkins Cove scene through the lens of a 1940s travel illustrator, it practically draws itself.

The Artistic Vision: Vintage Style, Timeless Place

The golden age of American travel poster art ran from the 1920s through the 1950s, when artists working for railroads, shipping lines, and tourism boards created bold, graphic images that made every destination look like an adventure worth taking. These posters didn’t try to capture every detail. Instead, they identified the essential visual elements of a place — the shapes, the colors, the atmosphere — and rendered them with confidence and clarity. The result was art that felt both honest and idealized at the same time.

That approach is a perfect match for Perkins Cove. MaineBound Designs’ illustration captures the harbor at its most inviting: sailboats and fishing vessels resting peacefully on the water, colorful coastal cottages and lush greenery framing the scene, and the warm glow of a Maine summer day washing over everything. The color palette draws directly from the landscape itself — deep harbor blues, the warm tans and greens of the shoreline, the bright whites and reds of the boats. It feels like the Perkins Cove that people carry in their memories long after the visit is over.

Printed on premium, sustainable FSC-certified canvas using Greenguard Gold–certified, eco-friendly latex inks, every MaineBound Designs print is built to last. The canvas surface adds genuine depth and texture, giving the finished piece a rich, gallery-quality look that works equally well in a coastal cottage, a city home, or a vacation rental by the sea.

Browse the full collection of Maine retro travel poster canvas prints in the MaineBound Designs Retro Art Canvas Print section on Etsy and find the Maine scene that speaks to you.

Available Sizes to Fit Your Space

The Perkins Cove canvas print is available in four sizes, so whether you need a small accent piece or a statement print for a wide open wall, there is a perfect fit waiting for you:

Every print ships with rubber dots on the back for easy, stable hanging straight out of the box.

More Than a Souvenir — It’s a Memory You Can Keep

People come to Perkins Cove for a lot of different reasons. Some come for the lobster. Some come to watch the drawbridge swing open for a passing sailboat. Some come to browse the galleries and pick up a piece of original art. Some come simply to sit on a bench and watch the boats and breathe the salt air and remember why Maine matters to them. Whatever brings people here, they almost always leave wanting to come back.

This canvas print is for all of them. For the Ogunquit regulars who have watched the sun set over Perkins Cove more times than they can count, it is a piece of home on their wall. For the first-time visitors who walked across that drawbridge and felt something shift inside them — a slowing down, a sense of arrival — it is a way to hold onto that moment. For art lovers, New England enthusiasts, coastal decor collectors, and anyone who has ever fallen a little bit in love with the southern Maine coast, it is a print that tells a story worth telling.

It also makes an exceptional gift — for travelers, lobster lovers, history buffs, coastal homeowners, and anyone who simply appreciates beautiful, meaningful wall art rooted in a real and remarkable place.

Bring Perkins Cove Retro Art Canvas Print Home

For over 125 years, Perkins Cove has been drawing people to its shores — fishermen, artists, travelers, and dreamers, all finding something they needed in that small, beautiful harbor. MaineBound Designs has turned that enduring magic into a bold retro canvas print that belongs on your wall.

Whether you’re looking for the perfect Ogunquit keepsake, a striking piece of coastal Maine wall art, or a gift that carries real history and genuine charm, this print delivers on every level.

Ready to bring a piece of Perkins Cove into your home? Visit the MaineBound Designs Etsy Shop today, choose your size, and let one of Maine’s most beloved harbors find a home on your walls. Four sizes, fast shipping, and over a century of coastal character — waiting for you.

MaineBound Designs is a Star Seller on Etsy, proudly rooted in Maine and dedicated to creating artwork that honors the beauty, history, and enduring spirit of the Pine Tree State.