Work by Jean Kigel.

Jean Kigel Gallery, located at 1396 Back Cove Road in Waldoboro, will host “The Buzz about Bees” from June 18 to 30.

This show focuses on close-ups of Asian brush and watercolor florals, as well as their many pollinators. Look closely at Kigel’s Asian brush peonies, lotus and lilies, and you’ll see their pollen-laden stamen. Take a closer look, and you’ll find some of their pollinators.

The current buzz about bees is alarming, but Kigel’s paintings remind us that bees are far from the only pollinators.

“Bees are a large part of the story, but there are also other insects, birds, bats and wind that facilitate pollination,” Kigel says. “For this reason, I love to include flies, beetles, moths and birds in my floral paintings. Sometimes I even include wind as a pollinator.”

When Kigel creates Asian brush and sumi-e paintings, she first spends meditative time by her grinding sticks of ink with water on her ink stone. When the ink becomes slippery and dark, she pours it into porcelain saucers and dilutes it into varying tones from dark to light. This ink, combined with watercolors, produces her brush paintings.

A member of the Sumi-e Society of America and the Union of Maine Visual Artists, Kigel has exhibited in the Mid-coast, Massachusetts and Vermont.

Discover this show both online at www.jeankigel.com and in person, by appointment, at 1396 Back Cove Road in Waldoboro. For more information, email jean@jeankigel.com, or call 832-5152.