Artist Spotlight: Pemaquid artists Sally Loughridge and Peggy Farrell

Two well-known, successful, local artists showing this season at the Pemaquid Art Gallery at Lighthouse Park in Bristol are Sally Loughridge and Peggy Farrell.

Loughridge’s bold and colorful oil paintings and oil pastels contrast with the delicacy and intimacy of Farrell’s watercolors, with Loughridge depicting the drama and changes in Maine’s coastal natural world and Farrell reveling in the quiet essence and charm of familiar Maine scenes and figures. Both create a light-filled world in their paintings but with very different results.

Both artists are largely self-taught, have had a lifelong passion for creating art, and they both have been inspired by individual artists and local workshops that contributed to their skills. Monhegan has been one of the many inspirational locations they share. They have each worked in other mediums. Loughridge occasionally paints in watercolor, is also an author and also creates jewelry inspired by nature. Farrell has worked in oil, tole painting, stained glass and calligraphy and recently added gouache to her portfolio, especially for the charming bird paintings she started in recent years inspired by her interest in birding.

Loughridge’s dramatic depictions of the natural world are created with unique patterns of light and shadow with rich colors unifying the scenes. She hopes to stir the viewer emotionally and is especially interested in depicting impending change, such as a coming storm, seasonal changes or sunrise and sunset.

“The complex and mysterious interplay of form, color, texture, light and movement in ocean, sky, forest or garden” inspires her artistic endeavors, she says.

Loughridge has shown her work extensively around the area, in Rockland, Brunswick and many Lincoln County locations. Images of her work are available on her website at www.sallyloughridge.com.

Farrell’s loosely rendered watercolor scenes of the Maine coast, gardens, still lifes of flowers, vegetables and figures, both human and animal, are beautifully drawn, intimate, calm, luminous and airy, delighting in watercolor’s range of wash effects contrasted with calligraphic outlines and details. Her recent work often uses stronger contrasts in color and values to set off her figures and objects where she tries to capture the gesture and essence of the subject.

This year, she has focused on colorful buoys and birds, often showing birds in their natural surroundings and painting with stronger hues and darker values.

She calls painting her secret garden. “When I am painting, I am just quietly me.” She has shown her work regularly in the seasonal exhibits throughout the area.  Her work can also be viewed on her website at www.thepottingshedstudio.com.

The other 2021 Pemaquid Gallery artists are Barbara Applegate, Debra Arter, Bruce Babb, Julie Babb, Stephen Busch, John Butke, Dianne Dolan, Gwenolyn Evans, Sarah Fisher, Claire Hancock, Kay Sawyer Hannah, Kathleen Horst, Hannah Ineson, Will Kefauver, Jan Kilburn, Barbara Klein, Patti Leavitt, Judy Nixon, Brooke Pay (guest member), Alexandra Perry-Weiss, Paul Sherman, Cindy Spencer, Liliana Thelander, Kimberly Skillen Traina, Barbara Vanderbilt, Bob Vaughan, Candace Vlcek, Bev Walker, Carol Wiley (guest member) and Sherrie York.