Carver Hill opens “Ted’s Oils”

On First Friday, October 7, 2016, Carver Hill Gallery, 338 Main Street in Rockland, Maine, will open TED’S OILS: TED KELLER LIKE YOU’VE NEVER SEEN HIM. Ted will be in the gallery from 5 – 8 PM to answer questions and meet people.

Ted Keller is a well-known career artist in Midcoast Maine. For the first 30+ years of his professional life, Ted made and sold ceramic pottery and sculpture while teaching college level art classes at Oregon State University, the University of Maine, and the Rockport Photographic Workshops (now Maine Media). At age 53 he gave up ceramics and started to work as a painter.

“When I started painting about 16 years ago, I worked in oil for a couple of years. I made about 100 paintings, and then put them away. The never before seen paintings from that time recently resurfaced, and I rather liked many of them. These 20 or so works at Carver Hill Gallery are from the end of that period, when I felt that my voice had made its presence in the paintings. The brush strokes are confident and the paintings have life. They are mostly plein aire works of the Midcoast Maine landscape.”

After complete immersion in the exploration of oil, Ted switched to watercolor and stuck with it for 14 years. His subject matter ranged from city-scapes, to portraits of dead artists and proportionally playful interiors with people. Ted is enviably competent in all of the subject matter, and the style is cohesive and easy to recognize. The images are loose, directly painted, colorful, full of life and sometimes a little quirky.
After this long hiatus from oils and the subsequent shift to watercolor, during the summer of 2016 when Ted rediscovered the oil paintings he had left in Maine, he fell back in love with oil painting. He returned to New Mexico, and the still life flower paintings emerged.

“As you look at my painting here are a few thoughts that might help. I work quickly. I trust my hands more than my mind. I don’t care what I paint as much as how I paint. This allows me freedom to paint whatever interests me at the time. The paintings proceed without much revision. I have mostly worked in watercolor which does not often reward reworking. My paintings do not get better with more time, refinements, and worry. I make paintings spontaneously for better or worse and get on to the next one. I approach the oil paintings in the same way as the watercolors. I am more interested in the process of art than the product, and for that reason I believe I can make a good painting when that freedom brings everything together just right.” Ted’s artist mantra is “I hope the Love shows”. This is important because for him – Art is about Love.

The gallery will be showing 14 framed, never before seen landscapes from 16 years ago, and 8 brand new floral still life paintings in this exhibition. Unframed work is also available.

* After 35 years in Midcoast Maine, Ted now spends most of the year in Taos New Mexico; however, he maintains a house in Union, Maine, and he frequently visits to keep the connection. Ted has a BFA in ceramics and painting from Syracuse University, and an MFA in ceramics from the University of Montana. He has created more than1500 watercolors and 150 oils. His work can be found on the walls of interesting people worldwide.

Show runs through November 2. FMI, http://www.carverhillgallery.com