Caldbeck Gallery features work by Frederic Kellogg and Barbara Sullivan

From August 17 through September 17, the Caldbeck Gallery, 12 Elm Street in Rockland, will show new paintings in oil on canvas and in watercolor on paper by Frederic Kellogg of Thomaston, and Washington D.C., and new work in shaped fresco by Barbara Sullivan of Solon.  In addition to the 2 solo shows, a group show will feature new work by Anne Alexander of Windham, Elizabeth Awalt of Swans Island, Katherine Bradford of Brunswick and Brooklyn NY, Melanie Essex of Cushing, John Goodman of Friendship and Boston, and Kristin Malin of Georgetown.   A reception to meet the artists will take place on Wednesday, August 17, from 6-8 pm.

     In his exhibit, “Painting in Maine”, Kellogg includes his on location paintings,  mostly painted at Great Spruce Head Island, in Thomaston (his studio is there), and at numerous sites in and around Mid Coast Maine.  The artist says of his studio work,  that each larger painting began with a quick drawing in his sketch book, or a small, completed painting done on location, many beginning as watercolors in that sketch book, which he carries with him at all times.  Engaged in the search for what can be called a contemporary realism, Kellogg is deeply influenced by the work of American realists Edward Hopper and Fairfield Porter.  Even with the additional influences that photography and Abstract Expressionism have had on this contemporary realism, Kellogg feels that the art of painting still plays an essential role in helping people see the world around them.  His work is in the permanent collections of the Farnsworth Art Museum, the Portland Museum of Art, and numerous corporate and private collections in Maine, Boston, and Washington, D.C.  This is Kellogg’s 3^rd solo show with the Caldbeck.

     Sullivan recently returned from a five week residency on Monhegan Island, where, for more than a century, the fantastic light from all directions, has excited artists and all others who go there.  In her studio 12 miles off shore, Sullivan had time to absorb the history of the island and let it influence her work: the shaped fresco bas reliefs that she has been making and showing at the Caldbeck for over 20 years.  With a love for the objects of the every day, she turned to making shapes about the every day on Monhegan, from perhaps a century ago, such as the kerosene lamp in her room, the candelabras hanging in the chapel, or a well sat in chair that could tell some stories, if only it could talk.  Sullivan is also a watcher of birds; their endless shapes and colors have become innumerable and charming shaped fresco birds for years.  During her stay on Monhegan, she worked with the imagery of the ever present gulls.  One piece in her Caldbeck exhibit contains dozens of fresco gulls flying up into the sky.  As she began to take in the light on the island, her take on it also became quite literal, as the island has only had electrical power for about 25 years.   So she made objects about the different kinds of light: metaphorical light, refracted light, and illuminated (flame or electric) light.  “Light, Flight, and Things” is an exhibit about all of that.  With her MFA from Vermont College, Sullivan has won a Venice Printmaking Residency in Italy, the Robert M. MacNamarra Foundation Fellowship in Maine, a Good Idea Grant from the Maine Arts Commission, the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation Grant, and a Pollack/Krasner Foundation Grant.  This is her 10th solo exhibit with the gallery.

     Gallery hours are Tuesday – Saturday 11-4, and Sunday 1-4.  For information please call the gallery at 207 594 5935 or email [email protected].b