The bittersweet season is once more enfolding us, even as Autumn reaps its small deaths in the gardens and fields, it also leaves us with a vibrant display of color. The final bright blaze of a visual symphony issues a challenge, and sparks a hope in us, as we enter the winter months to come. Our four featured artists are not “going gently into that dark night”, but have summoned new energy and passion evident in our final show of the season.
Susan Graeber’s paintings give equal weight to the positive and negative forms created by the interplay of tree trunks and the atmospheric environment. In her painting, “Golden Fall Birch Trees”, the influence of Neil Welliver on her work is discernible and strongly apparent. Both artists spend hours in their studio, and in the woods to visually decode the complex patterns of the deep mysterious forests that surround them. Graeber also draws inspiration from Fairfield Porter, whose masterful use of interlocking color, informs her own tight compositions of foliage.
The recent studio pieces by Kathleen Robbins explore another aspect of the natural world in chromatic flux, the autumn Marsh. By melding her plein air sketches with photographic references and sense memory, she powerfully invokes the low lying wetlands. What some might dismiss as a wasteland, comes “alive with color, texture, and sharp contrasts” through Robbins’ realization of the landscape. Robbins summarizes her style by saying, “…ultimately, my paintings navigate the elusive snaking line between abstraction and figuration.”
One of our newest in-house artists, Charles Fenner Ball, moved east from Santa Fe. Out west, he was drawn to mountain groves of aspen, where he could respond with painterly immediacy, or store up and distill the mystical qualities of these natural tree sanctuaries. Aspen and Birch are closely related, both belonging to the poplar family. The artist writes, “…my love of aspens has been supplanted by birch trees, which offer very similar aesthetic characteristics… The white bark (of the birch) is like a blank canvas, reflecting the nature that surrounds it – the sun and sky, warm and cool reflected light, the foliage of the ground and trees.” Instead of depicting a specific location, Ball will often draw on his memories of landscapes, which coalesce into his idealized vision.
The tireless plein-air painter, Stefan Pastuhov captures the low glow of autumnal light on treetops in his painting of the peaks of Katahdin, entitled “From the Golden Road, Katahdin”. This is a true Jewel of a painting interpreting one of Maine’s most magnificent state parks. Pastuhov captures the majestic glitter of autumnal foliage that adorn the timberland and mountainous landscape overlooked by a sentry birch. With the twinkle of the lake and clouds receding past the mountain, the brisk beautiful autumn weather is conveyed and felt.
If you can’t make the journey to the byways of Baxter this month, enjoy the fiery foliage vicariously, by joining us at the gallery to celebrate the most vivid of seasons. Located at 5 Public Landing in Camden, the gallery is open daily from 10am-5pm. This show will run till the end of the gallery season. For more information, please visit www.camdenfallsgallery.com or call 207-470-7027.
Dowling Walsh Gallery in Rockland is featuring “IDK,” an exhibition of paintings by Tollef Runquist that explores the intersection of personal reflection, archetypes, fantasy and play. Runquist’s paintings combine images and symbols drawn from lived experience, emotional landscapes and cultural influences, creating an intuitive dialogue between imagery and meaning. “My work explores a space where […]
Meetinghouse Arts in Freeport is presenting a full schedule of fall exhibitions and performances, including a members show, a collaborative exhibition by longtime artist friends Tim Sample and Linda Rowell-Kelley and several concerts. The gallery’s fall members exhibition, “Nature’s Palette: Art Inspired by the Season,” will remain on view through Oct. 18. Featuring paintings, drawings, […]
Local Color Gallery in Belfast will feature printmaker, collage artist and sculptor Jeff Wahlstrom from Oct. 19 to Nov. 22. An Art Walk reception will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. Oct. 23, with an artist talk at 5 p.m. Based in Bangor, Wahlstrom creates block prints and watercolor collages inspired by the natural […]
Women Eco Artists Dialog (WEAD), based in Berkeley, California, is accepting submissions for its 2027 members exhibition, “Prototyping Futures of Making: Water, Data, and Living Systems.” The exhibition will explore the relationships among water, data, ecological systems and emerging technologies, asking how artists can engage with living systems as sites of collaboration, construction and consequence. […]
Triangle Gallery in Rockland is presenting three exhibitions through Oct. 31, including an extended solo exhibition by Carter Wentworth, a group fiber arts show and a fall exhibition of work by gallery artists. Wentworth’s “Sound of Rain Crossing the Lake” will remain on view in the upstairs gallery through the end of October. “Interwoven,” a […]
Waterfall Arts in Belfast will present “Found in Translation,” a mixed-media exhibition featuring Maine artists Deborah Jellison, JoAnne Houlsen and John LeBlanc, from Oct. 23 to Nov. 28. An opening reception will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Oct. 23. The exhibition brings together three artist friends whose work explores familiar Maine landscapes, objects […]
Courthouse Gallery Fine Art in Ellsworth is presenting “Form Meets Surface,” an exhibition highlighting porcelain ceramics by potter Mark Bell and collaborative works created with painter William Irvine. The artists, both established in their respective fields, have worked together since 2015 to create porcelain vases and plates that combine Bell’s ceramic forms with Irvine’s painted […]
Barn Gallery in Ogunquit concluded its 2026 exhibition season Oct. 12, but the venue will continue to welcome visitors for two performances in the 19th annual Elizabeth Dunaway Burnham Piano Festival. Pianist, composer and vocalist Zahili Zamora will return to Ogunquit with her Afro Cuban Jazz Trio for a performance from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. […]
The Brunswick Guild Fine Craft Show will return to the historic Fort Andross Mill in Brunswick on Oct. 24 and 25, celebrating its 10th season with work by 40 juried Maine craft artists. Presented by Shop Maine Craft, the indoor show will feature basketry, ceramics, decorative and wearable fiber art, furniture, glass, jewelry, mixed media, […]
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