Currently featured at the gallery is an exhibition of paintings by nine outstanding women artists of Maine entitled "Celebrating Island Life".
Several of our artists spend their summers on Maine Islands. Nancy Calvert resides on Isle au Haut and paints oils of land and sea. Wini Smart lives on Great Cranberry and has been painting coastal Maine for over 40 years. Wini's daughter, Gail Cleveland, spends most of her summer on Mount Desert Island and paints realist landscapes of Acadia. Bonnie Alpander, another Maine native, loves to paint on location because of the intimate contact with nature that it provides. Her favorite islands for plein air watercolors include Acadia and Monhegan. Margaret Mayer lives in the White Mountains, but visits Deer Isle in the summer and paints watercolors and pastels of the islands in the bay, especially at sunset.
Gudrun Keifer Tarr, Choo Whyte, Hannah Nelsbach and Laura Tasheiko all live in coastal villages that afford spectacular views of offshore islands, and all have been painting professionally for many years, but their similarity ends there. |
Their experience of the diversity of island subjects and the play of light and fog is translated into realist, expressionist, impressionist and minimalist works that reflect each artist's unique vision. Tarr paints serene minimalist works reflecting her experience of the ocean that surrounds her home and the divide between sky and sea while out sailing with her husband. Whyte paints vivid impressionistic watercolors of coastal scenes often in golden light and warm earth tones. Tasheiko and is best known for her realist watercolor landscapes and seascapes, while Nelsbach has a unique style that combines abstract and representational elements in the same composition.
Collectively these nine artists draw upon centuries of direct experience of the magic that is unique to the islands of Downeast Maine. Their original oil, watercolor and pastel paintings will be on display from August 15th. to September 15th. |
