Vase by George Pearlman

CRAFT Gallery in Rockland announces gallery potter George Pearlman has been selected to participate in the Smithsonian Craft Show in Washington, DC, this spring. Craft artists throughout the nation apply for this prestigious juried show and only a few of the very best are selected each year. Pearlman has had a studio and gallery on the St. George Peninsula for many years and has shown at CRAFT Gallery since it opened three years ago. Collectors covet his work for it’s whimsical verve and painterly application of color and design on his clay forms. CRAFT Gallery will open for the season Friday, May 31, featuring new works by Pearlman and other gallery artists. For more information visit craftonelm.com.

River Arts in Damariscotta invites artists’ submissions for its upcoming show “Maine Icons and Special Places,” opening August 3. Artistic images powerfully influence our sense of a place, and this exhibition will present works that portray the visual “icons” that have come to represent Maine, from lighthouses and lobsters to potatoes, ski slopes, moose and seagulls, as well as specific “special places,” whether widely-known, such as Portland Head Light, Mt. Katahdin and Baxter State Park, to more personal choices, such as the MOFGA Fair, a local country store or a historic building.

Juror for this exhibition is Bjorn Runquist, well-known painter of the Maine art world. Will Barnet commented that a “certain air of romanticism permeates his work reinforced by a wonderful feeling for light and color.” Born in Sweden , Runquist completed his secondary education in France, his bachelor’s degree at Colgate University, in the U.S., and his master’s at King’s College, University of London.  After several years as an abstract painter, he returned in the 1990s to painting landscapes and seascapes.  For many years he has divided his time between homes in Connecticut and Clark Island, Maine.  He describes painting as “an experience framed by contemplation.”  He is currently represented by Gleason Fine Arts, Boothbay Harbor and Portland; Landings Gallery, Rockland; Morrison Gallery, CT; and the Horton Hayes Gallery, Charleston, SC.

Submissions for the exhibition in all media are welcome, including photography.  Sculpture is encouraged.  Wall-hung work should not exceed 40 inches in any dimension, and for safety reasons, plexiglass should be used for work over 34 inches, excluding pastels. Drop-off dates for art work are Friday and Saturday, July 27-28t, from 10 -4 p.m. at the River Arts Gallery at 170 Main St. (Bus. Route One) Damariscotta. Artists may submit up to three works for an entry fee of $15 for members, $20 for non-members. All work in the exhibition must be for sale and may not have been exhibited at the gallery previously. Entry forms are available on the website www.riverartsme.org as well as at the gallery when submitting. The opening reception will be on Friday, August 3rd, from 5 -7 p.m. Queries and requests may be directed to River Arts at 563-1507 or by email at info@riverartsme.org . The gallery is open Monday through Saturday, 10 to 4, and on Sundays from 10-2.

The Portland Museum of Art is hosting a Gallery Talk by Mary Collins about Marsden Hartley and Rockwell Kent, Saturday, June 23 at 1 p.m. at the Great Hall.  The talk is free with Museum admission and the public is invited to join PMA Docents for casual and informative discussions of works in the Museum’s collection.

The Farnsworth Art Museum is pleased to announce that for the third consecutive year, The First, N.A., will sponsor First Fridays at the Farnsworth. During First Fridays, the museum will open its galleries free of charge to the public from 5 to 8 p.m. The First Friday dates, which are part of the Arts in Rockland First Friday art walks, will be June 1, July 6, August 3, September 7 and October 5.

Waterfall Arts in Belfast has been selected to receive one of the 162 grants of $10,000 awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts to organizations in 46 states, plus the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands. As National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Rocco Landesman has noted, “Art works everywhere, which is why the NEA’s Challenge America Fast-Track (CAFT) program supports projects from primarily small and mid-sized arts organizations that extend the reach of the arts to underserved audiences—those whose opportunities to experience the arts are limited by geography, ethnicity, economics, or disability.”

The funds will be used to undertake a major assessment of Waterfall Arts’ Belfast building, the former Governor Anderson School. The assessment will include structural and energy systems analysis, investigation of moisture problems and the determination of options that will make the building handicapped accessible.

Waterfall Arts’ Facilities Committee, under the leadership of Matt O’Malia of Belfast’s award-winning GO Logic Homes, and Waterfall Arts staff will develop a long term, high efficiency renovation plan incorporating the information obtained through these assessments by the end of June 2012.

“Taken together, these Challenge America Fast-Track grants provide an extraordinary sampling of the work that art organizations do in underserved communities,” said Chairman Landesman. “With these grants, we are helping to ensure that art and design works for all Americans.”

As a contemporary arts center, Waterfall Arts offers classes, residencies, exhibitions, studio space and art and cultural events for all ages and abilities. With its mission of creating community in harmony with nature through the transformative power of the arts, the organization plays a vital role in increasing availability to the arts in a community with limited access due to economics and geographic location.

The UMaine Museum of Art in Bangor is hosting their 4th annual Art Factory Free Family Fun Day Sat. Dec. 3 from 11 am to 3 pm. Hands-on art stations will provide parents and children the opportunity to engage in various creative projects. Create your own eco-friendly wrapping paper, watercolor, ornament or gift. The Museum is proud to partner once again with Penobscot River Restoration Project who will offer additional activities focused on birds and fish. Supplies are free and instruction will be given throughout the day. UMMA Art Factory is generously sponsored by WBRC Architects and Engineers. Also, stop by the UMaine Museum of Art next week on Wed., Dec. 7 for an informal, noon-time gallery talk with UMMA Education Coordinator Eva Wagner. The tour and talk will feature the Abe Ajay exhibition “Constructions” as well several works on display from the Museum’s Permanent Collection. ART@NOON gallery talks are free and open to the public.

River Arts seeks submissions for its upcoming show titled “Small Works,” an exhibition of art work no larger than 12 inches in any dimension (not including frame, mat, or sculpture base).  The show, to be presented at the River Arts main gallery at 170 Main St.  in Damariscotta, is open to all media and styles (including photography, sculpture, collage and abstract, among others).

Juror for “Small Works” is noted sculptor and collage artist Marylin Quint-Rose. Born in Boston and a long-time resident of Maine, Quint-Rose received her MFA from the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College. As a faculty member of the School of the Worcester Art Museum in Massachusetts, she became interested in paper sculpture and the making of handmade paper. She has directed numerous workshops and residencies throughout New England and has been a guest artist at Univ. of Rhode Island, Holy Cross, and Massachusetts College of Art.  Her work has been shown in numerous solo and group shows in the U.S. and internationally, including a 1993 show at the Portland Museum of Art entitled “Under Wraps.” She has been a MacDowell Colony Fellow, Artist-in-Residence at the National College of Art, Lahore, Pakistan, and one of only a few Americans whose work has been shown at the Leopold-Hoesche Museum in Duren, Germany. She is represented by the Barn Gallery in Ogunquit and the Mars Hall Gallery in Tenants Harbor.

Drop off dates for submissions at River Arts Gallery, 170 Main St., Damariscotta, are Oct. 28-29, 10-4. The “Small Works” exhibition runs from Nov. 4-Dec. 2., with an opening reception November 4^th 5-7. Further requests for information can be directed to River Arts at 563-1507 or by email info@riverartsme.org. Entry forms  can be found at www.riverartsme.org.

River Arts conducts open, juried, themed exhibitions every five weeks – year round, a member exhibition and the annual Lincoln Academy student exhibition. In addition to exhibitions, River Arts has a year-round schedule of classes, open studios, lectures, poetry readings and special events as well as a full schedule of artist directed exhibitions at the River Arts Gallery II on Route 1. For more information check the website www.riverartsme.org  call 563-1507 or email info@riverartsme.org.

Koichiro Kurita "Tangent III", Montville, Maine, triptych, Albumen print from Calotype - , 2011

Koichiro Kurita, a master fine art photographer, known for his elegant large format platinum/palladium and calotype prints, will exhibit his work at Waterfall Arts’ Clifford Gallery in Belfast. The exhibit, “Meditations on Thoreau” opens Friday October 7 with a reception from 5 to 8 pm.

Kurita worked as a commercial photographer in Japan until he encountered Henry David Thoreau’s book Walden. He relates that he “was moved by the writer’s absolute freedom of the spirit and ability to enjoy harmony with nature, unconstrained by society’s rules. It was so close to the Asian way of understanding nature that, deeply inspired, I quit commercial photography and retreated to the mountains to start photographing nature. Each surface in the world of nature has a connecting border to the next surface. Each connection contributes to a harmony of nature as a whole. My work is the expression of these mysterious junctures and an exploration of the connections between myself and nature.”

In 1990, Kurita received a grant from the Asian Cultural Council which allowed him to concentrate on his artistic interests, resulting in his first solo exhibition in the United States. His works are exhibited and collected internationally by major museums including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Princeton Art Museum, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Biblioteque Nationale de Paris and the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum, among others.

Kurita recently embarked on Beyond Spheres, a multi-year project documenting the footsteps of Thoreau in Maine and west to the Great Lakes. During the project he plans to photograph the landscape of Thoreau’s trail employing equipment and processes existing during his lifetime: view cameras, paper negatives and calotype/talbotype printing, a process introduced in 1841 by William Fox Talbot, using iodized paper. The resulting photographs have a lush surface that captures the essence of streams, marshes, plants and woods. For this exhibit, Kurita made photographs at the Kingdom in Montville, Baxter State Park and other Maine locations.

An artist’s talk is scheduled for Thursday, October 20th, beginning at 7pm. Ed Earle, curator at the International Center for Photography in New York, will introduce Kurita and lead the conversation. Both the exhibit and talk are sponsored by individual donors, Cold Mountain Builders and Consumers Fuel in Belfast.

Also opening October 7th in the Corridor Gallery at Waterfall Arts is the Belfast Poetry Festival’s collaborative work by poet Elisabeth Benjamin and artist Anna Strickland, poet Molly McDonald and artist Maryjean Viano Crowe, and poet Ira Sadoff and artist Barbara Andrus. Strickland is an installation artist who teaches photography at the Rhode Island School of Design. She is most passionate about, and an expert in, antique photographic processes. Maryjean Viano Crowe uses materials in unique ways to create mixed media installations that incorporate clothing as art, large–scale photographic assemblages, light box shrines, artist books, and mixed media paintings. Barbara Andrus works with tree parts, milkweed silk, crochet-related forms, fabric over branches, book–making, felting and knitting.

The Poetry Festival Haiku Tent will be set up during the opening, where poet laureate Jacob Fricke will encourage visitors to write and post their own haiku poems.

Waterfall Arts, located at 256 High Street in Belfast, is dedicated to creating community in harmony with nature through the transformative power of the arts. For more information on  exhibits, gallery hours, art classes, studio rentals and events, visit http://www.waterfallarts.org/  or call 207.338.2222.

The Maine Crafts Association has collaborated with their craft artist membership to offer Maine crafts and products to Bangor Mall shoppers, October 1 through December 31st. Over 75 Maine craft artists and small businesses are represented on the creative displays of Maine-made and handcrafted products in the Center for Maine Craft store.  The Center for Maine Craft offers the best of Maine baskets, ceramics, fiber, furniture, glass, jewelry, leather, metal, mixed media, paper, stone and wood. The Center will be open October 1 through December 31.

Downtown Gallery in Washington presents “Free Fall,” a group show featuring gallery partners, Sept. 9 through October 10. FMI, call 542-6492.

Tom-and-Jack-book-cover-image

On Thursday, September 8, the Farnsworth Art Museum will present a lecture by scholar Henry Adams entitled Tom and Jack: The Intertwined Lives of Thomas Hart Benton and Jackson Pollock. The lecture will take place in the museum’s auditorium at 6 p.m.

In a story full of surprises, Henry Adams will explore the intense and sometimes turbulent relationship between the two men. He will also trace the evolution of their art, from Benton’s early adventures as a modernist in Gertrude Stein’s Paris, to Pollock’s ultimate triumph as the leader of the Abstract Expressionists. At first glance the drip paintings of Jackson Pollock—lariats of pigment thrown onto the canvas—appear to be the polar opposite of Thomas Hart Benton’s murals—restlessly rolling American landscapes peopled by cowboys and steelworkers.  Yet the two artists had a close and intense relationship dating from Pollock’s earliest days in New York, when Benton, then one of the most famous artists in America, took the young man under his wing. Benton gave Pollock the only formal training he ever had, and in a disturbing oedipal twist, Pollock even fell in love with Benton’s wife.

Lecturer Henry Adams holds a Ph.D. in Art History from Yale University and is Professor of American Art at Case Western Reserve University. In 2010, Adams gave the Farnsworth’s annual Wyeth Day lecture entitled Andrew Wyeth, King Vidor, and The Big Parade.

Seating for this program is limited to 60 people. The cost is $8 for members and $10 for nonmembers. For reservations, please call 207-596-0949 or visit farnsworthmusem.org/education.

Sculptor Jesse Salisbury demonstrates how to assemble a new granite sculpture for the members of the Oakland Museum Art Guild in California who were visiting Down East Maine on an art tour guided by Bruce Brown.

Ellsworth Bruce Brown, curator emeritus of CMCA in Rockport, recently guided a group of 26 members from the Oakland Museum Art Guild in California on an art tour through Down East Maine. Guild members Connie Rosenquist and Beverly Sereda organized the trip. This was the group’s second visit to Maine; their first visit was six or seven years ago to southern Maine.

A visit to Courthouse Gallery Fine Art in Ellsworth was the “kickoff” event on this whirlwind art tour that included visits to artists’ studios, galleries, and museums. At Courthouse Gallery painter Philip Frey and sculptor Jesse Salisbury gave lectures about their work. Salisbury, who has a solo show opening August 10 at the gallery, demonstrated how he assembles a granite sculpture. The sculpture is a brand new piece for Salisbury and is made up of five interlocking pieces.

The group also visited the Northeast Harbor studio of Robert Neuman, as he was educated in San Francisco. Other stops included the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, and the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland.