A new coloring book for all ages features landmarks and wildlife from throughout Harpswell, each page hand-drawn by an illustrator who grew up on the islands.
Kal Betts, who grew up on Bailey Island and now lives on Orr’s Island, launched “Harpswell Illustrated” in mid-May. The whimsical coloring book builds on a previous version, “Coloring the Coast of Maine: A Bailey & Orr’s Island Adventure,” released in December 2024.
“Harpswell Illustrated” features detailed depictions of local scenes and stories from throughout the town — like a page featuring Lowell, a whale who inhabited Lowell’s Cove one summer. There are simpler illustrations, too, and pages with repeating patterns of mackerel or lobsters. The book also includes pages depicting 25 local businesses that sponsored the effort.
Betts grew up on Bailey Island. His mother, who loves the beach roses that bloom in the cover illustration, is a Johnson — a member of a family that arrived in Harpswell in the late 1700s.
Betts’ father, grandfather, great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather were all lobstermen, as was Betts — he got his own license when he was 8.
Betts graduated from Mt. Ararat High School, where he was voted “most artistic” in his senior year. He went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in illustration, photography and graphic design from Regent’s University in London, England.
Betts graduated into the recession of 2008, but found employment at an Apple Store, where he experimented with digital drawing and began to define his illustration style. His medium was driven by necessity — a stylus, he said, was cheaper than paints and brushes and canvas.
After Apple, he worked for Basin Point Real Estate, eventually becoming art director for the business.
Then came the pandemic. Betts dedicated himself to caring for his grandparents in their Bailey Island home until they died in 2021 and 2022. He lost his father around the same time.
Shaken by the experience of clearing out his grandparents’ home, he said to himself, “I better get drawing.”
Betts began to draw the places that define the town he loves, posting illustrations on his Facebook page. When people asked to buy them, he saw an opportunity.
Betts doesn’t consider himself a salesperson, but he went door to door to local businesses with sample coloring pages in search of sponsors to fund the book.
“They can be very personal,” Betts said of the sponsors’ pages. One business owner asked him to include specific constellations in the sky to represent their children.
It took Betts two years to complete the project. Each of the more than 40 illustrations represents 10-20 hours of work.
All illustrations are hand-drawn in the Procreate drawing app, using an Apple Pencil on an iPad. “It feels just as natural now as pen on paper,” Betts said of working digitally.
Betts uses neither generative artificial intelligence nor software that turns photos into illustrations. “I would never use AI to replicate art,” he said.
To Betts, his coloring book represents a specific moment in time, as Harpswell teeters on the edge of change.
“People from here will notice certain things,” he said — familiar boats, cars and neighbors. The buoy patterns belong to local lobstermen. The books in the Orr’s Island Library are by island authors.
“I can’t express how much it means to have the community be a part of this,” Betts said.
Priced at $25, “Harpswell Illustrated” can be found at Harpswell and Brunswick businesses or online at books.by/kalbetts.
Want to color in one of Betts’ pages yourself? Click the image below to download it, then print it out and have fun!
