Don’t let the Pemaquid Art Gallery’s season close on Oct. 11 without having viewed the great range of fine art on view there, for example the widely divergent work of well known local artists Julie Babb and Barbara Vanderbilt.
Babb’s delicate, highly skilled and detailed gouache portraits of birds have been long-time favorites and are feasts for the eye. Vanderbilt’s powerful yet softly colored pastel close-ups of geological and natural formations, boulders and trees have an emotional and meditative impact mesmerizing the viewer. Both are masters of beautiful, soft color combinations and deft color blending. And both, although so different in the scale of their subject matter, draw the viewer into special visual worlds.
Babb spent her early years in Mexico and received her first art instruction during college years there. Her early love of nature was formed there, surrounded by the flowering natural world year round. She moved to Maine in 1962 and attended the university of Maine at Orono, then moved with her husband to Rochester, New York where she pursued five years of art education. She returned to Maine in 1992, where she continued to study drawing and painting, including home study of ornithology. She uses not only the gouache medium in her work but also scratchboard which allows for fine detail in white lines against a black background.
Babb has received numerous awards. She has also been a longtime art instructor. Her designs have been featured in many publications. Her work can be seen online at www.covehousestudios.com.
Vanderbilt was born in New York City, grew up in northern New Jersey, moved to Maine in 1971, and has a degree in art from the University of Maine in Augusta. She studied with local artists both in Maine and in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
For years, she was an artist in clay. With her husband, she opened the Gothic Tile company in 1989, which specialized in custom ceramic tiles for custom installations all over the country. She was a visiting artist to high school art programs, inspiring others to experience working in clay. However, with her love of nature, when she discovered pastels she found the medium very exciting and one that lent itself so readily to self expression. She tries to convey the interplay between strength and delicacy, the contrast between the peacefulness of the moment and the rough changes that nature brings in the way of seasonal variation, erosion and storm. More of her work is viewable online at http://bvanderbilt.fineartstudioonline.com.
The work of these two artists reveal the variety of work available at the Pemaquid Art Gallery.
The other 2021 Pemaquid Gallery artists are Barbara Applegate, Debra Arter, Bruce Babb, Stephen Busch, John Butke, Dianne Dolan, Gwenolyn Evans, Peggy Farrell, Sarah Fisher, Claire Hancock, Kay Sawyer Hannah, Kathleen Horst, Hannah Ineson, Will Kefauver, Jan Kilburn, Barbara Klein, Patti Leavitt, Sally Loughridge, Judy Nixon, Brooke Pay (guest member), Alexandra Perry-Weiss, Paul Sherman, Cindy Spencer, Liliana Thelander, Kimberly Skillen Traina, Bob Vaughan, Candace Vlcek, Bev Walker, Carol Wiley (guest member) and Sherrie York.
Members’ work can be viewed at http://pemaquidartgallery.com.
Courthouse Gallery Fine Art in Ellsworth is presenting three exhibitions featuring Philip Barter, Gregory Dunham, Heidi Daub and Richard Keen. “My Maine” is the first retrospective of Maine painter Philip Barter since his death in 2024. Known for his stylized renderings of trees, rivers, mountains and clouds, Barter developed a distinctive visual language through bold […]
The Maine Museum of Photographic Arts in Portland will host an artist panel from 5 to 8 p.m. Aug. 21 in conjunction with “Investigations into the Metaphysical,” on view through Oct. 3. The exhibition brings together work by Brendan Bullock, Marianne Bernstein, Brenton Hamilton, Peter Shellenberger, Fern Nesson, Joyce Ellen Weinstein, Elizabeth Opalenik, Luc Demers […]
High Peaks Artisan Guild in Kingfield is featuring the work of multidisciplinary artist, sculptor and jeweler Samuel Goldstein throughout August. Goldstein, who lives in the Western Maine mountains, has spent more than eight years creating small sculptural pieces and jewelry from precious minerals and stones including rainbow fluorite, alabaster, lapis lazuli and Oregon sunstone. His […]
The Boothbay Region Art Foundation in Boothbay Harbor is accepting submissions for “ARTinME 2026,” its fourth annual juried exhibition celebrating large-format art. The exhibition, on view from Sept. 30 to Nov. 7, is open to full- and part-time Maine artists working in large two-dimensional formats in a variety of media and styles. Two-dimensional works must […]
The Deer Isle Artists Association is presenting “Small Works,” its popular annual exhibition showcasing work by artist members, through Sept. 13 at its gallery in Deer Isle Village. The exhibition features small works in a variety of media, including painting, drawing, printmaking, ceramics, weaving, woodwork, glass and jewelry. Buyers may take purchased work home immediately, […]
Cynthia Winings Gallery in Blue Hill will open “Seen at the End of the World,” co-curated with Christine Lafuente, on Aug. 23. The exhibition will feature work by Scott Baltz, Stanley Bielen, Avy Claire, Christine Lafuente, Carol Pelletier and Stuart Shils. In the Project Space, the gallery will present “Uncharted Seas,” featuring work by Kate […]
Local Color Gallery in Belfast will welcome guest artist Nell Parker for “New Topics: Spirits in the Land,” on view from Aug. 25 to Sept. 20. The exhibition features linocut and woodcut relief prints that explore animist possibilities within the local landscape through Parker’s pictorial heritage rooted in Western art history. Her work draws on […]
George Marshall Store Gallery in York is showcasing an evolving selection of work by regional artists alongside “Critters,” a group exhibition on view through Aug. 30. Among the works currently highlighted is Amanda Case Millis’ monotype “Three Mornings on Monhegan II,” inspired by one of the artist’s visits to Monhegan Island. Michael Stasiuk’s sculptural “Black […]
Dowling Walsh Gallery in Rockland is presenting four exhibitions through Aug. 29: Scott Kelley’s “The Whale,” Bo Bartlett’s “Eye of the Beholder,” Richard Estes’ “Woods and Waters” and “Sea Change: A Group Exhibition.” Kelley’s “The Whale” celebrates the 175th anniversary of Herman Melville’s “Moby-Dick,” a novel that has fascinated the artist since he first encountered […]
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