Courthouse Gallery Fine Art will host a Gallery Talk for Colin Page on Wednesday, August 29 at 6pm. The talk will be held in conjunction with a solo show of Packard’s new work. The show runs through September 15. The event is free and open to the public.
Linda Packard (b.1952) is an en plein air landscape painter, who recently transitioned to a totally process driven studio practice. The new abstract paintings in her first solo show at Courthouse Gallery have brought the sensuous physicality of her visceral landscapes to a new level. Packard, who has a profound interest in the abstract expressionist movement, is admittedly enamored by its painters. The one artist whose work she returns to most often is Joan Mitchell. For Packard, Mitchell’s paintings reflect the raw emotions of her experiences, often without specific intention. After receiving her BA in Studio Art from Smith College, Packard moved to Boston where she worded as librarian and a printmaker, and studied book arts. She eventually settled in Maine and opened a graphic design firm. In 2006, Packard returned to pursuing a fine art career. A one-week summer workshop with the late Boston painter, Jon Imber, in Stonington, Maine, marked the beginning of her love affair with the expressiveness of oil paint and en plein air painting. Packard spent five years working with Imber, who she still cites as one of her greatest influences. Packard was awarded a Heliker-LaHotan Foundation residency fellowship in 2015, and participated in a month-long residency this past fall at Weir Farm in Wilton, Connecticut in 2017. Packard lives in Bangor Maine, where she maintains a year-round studio.
Courthouse Gallery is located at 6 Court Street in Ellsworth. For more information on upcoming shows call (207) 667-6611, or visit www.courthousegallery.com
