Midge Coleman’s “South Bristol Morning”
Midge Coleman’s “South Bristol Morning”

Local artists Midge Coleman and Sally Loughridge are showing their work at the Pemaquid Art Gallery this season. It is the gallery’s 89th year of showcasing original two and three dimensional art, and the 57th year of the gallery’s setting on the beautiful park grounds in Bristol.

Coleman paints from life, and spends time each summer in Stonington and on Monhegan, capturing the wonderful Maine light that has brought so many painters to the beautiful mid-coast of Maine for centuries. She also journeys to the Southwest for inspiration and a change of pace.

Painting in both oil and acrylic, her work ranges in size from 6”x8” to 24”x26” in both landscape and still life. She learned early that a work of art is not to instruct or to edify, but to awaken an emotion in the viewer. Her success is measured by the quality and the force of that emotion. Her beautiful landscape and floral paintings can be seen on her website, midgecolemanfineart.com.

“Swift Passage” by Sally Loughridge
“Swift Passage” by Sally Loughridge

Sally Loughridge, a Pemaquid Gallery member since 2000, is also known for her Monhegan landscapes, and is “almost constantly inspired by much of Maine’s ‘bones’ against the ever changing sea and sky.” Loughridge enjoys both oil and soft pastels, and is proficient in both. She celebrates the landscape she captures but also feels she needs to honor her own emotional response, and to have the “imaginative freedom” to alter the composition to suit her painterly sensibilities.

In addition to the Maine landscape, Loughridge’s paintings have been influenced by personal health issues, and in 2016 she received a number of awards for her children’s book, Daniel and His Starry Night Blanket: A Story of Illness and Sibling Love. She is currently at work on a series with the theme “Passages,” which will be influenced by her recent health challenges. Her work can be seen at www.sallyloughridge.com.

Visit the Pemaquid Gallery of Art this season to see the work of member artist all residing within the Lincoln County area. The Gallery is situated within Lighthouse Park at Pemaquid Point, Bristol and online at www.pemaquidartgallery.com. The gallery is open daily through Columbus Day, from 10 AM until 5 PM.