Landing Gallery opens 2 solo shows

Landing Gallery, 409 Main St. in Rockland is pleased to announce the opening of two solo shows, “POSTCARDS FROM HOME”, a solo exhibition of new oil paintings by Sarah Faragher and “PASSAGES: TIME & THE SEA”, a solo exhibit of twenty seven new ceramic boats by David Riley Peterson from May 24 – June 26.  The Artists’ Opening Reception will be held on Friday, June 3rd from 5-8 PM during Rockland’s first Friday art walk. FMI 207 239-1223 or LandingArt.com.

David Riley Peterson loves boats so much that he makes them in clay. His new solo exhibit has  twenty seven new ceramic boats. David is a graduate of the highly regarded Univ. of Fl. where he received his BFA in Ceramics/Sculpture. Many of his craft are some of Maine’s most iconic watercraft, such as the Dory or Pea-Pod. Other boats in the show of interest are several tug boats, a passenger ferry and the remains of old sunken ships.

“David grew up summering on Vinalhaven where his father was born. His Grandfather also lived on the island, across from the boat yard. Talk about a kid’s ultimate dreamland. The boats in this show will definitely make you smile or scratch your head says Dave. They always make me very happy”.

Sarah Faragher’s oil paintings of Maine are painted on location and are defined in an objective manner, using gradations of color, a light to dark value range and closely observed natural details which have her signature, American Realist, style.

“I was born and raised on the coast of Maine, where there are pockets of glorious wildness that put everything else into perspective.  And that’s where I still live and work today.  I often think of my small paintings as postcards – brief messages from beautiful and difficult places – depicting noteworthy landscapes and ephemeral happenings.  Some of these landscapes I’m discovering now and some I’ve known all my life.  The latter encompass my earliest memories and remain of intense interest, in fact they only become more fascinating to me as the years pass.  They seem to exist outside of time, yet are simultaneously of the moment, now.  These are my home landscapes – home being a place of clarity and also of mystery, a real place and a dream, the view from my actual house and the metaphorical view, of an emotion, feeling, or memory.  I’ve been experimenting with the rectangular format, scaling the postcard up to a larger size, while attempting to retain the immediacy of the message.  Postcards, after all, often contain progress reports or statements of feeling, from a journey: messages about nature, history, longing, love, and comfort.  (Wish you were here.)  These are messages from where I live, wild plain places that get right down to the elemental nature of things – any old place, really, and at the same time, here.  Home.”  ~ Sarah Faragher