Courthouse Meade TheDress x
Holly Meade (1956–2013), “The Dress.”

Ellsworth Courthouse Gallery Fine Art will open for the season on May 1 with its “Annual Spring Show,” which this year will highlight the work of 20 artists.

Also on view is a solo show for printmaker Siri Beckman, whose enchanting prints are showcased in a new book by Down East Books.

The gallery will host a reception when guests can meet the artists from 5 to 7 p.m. May 8.

The shows will remain on view through June 3.

The “Spring Show” exhibition celebrates this most welcome change of season by bringing together an array of artworks by artists living and working in Maine.

One painting in the show titled “Ladder Into Spring,” by Blue Hill artist Heidi Daub, is accompanied by a poem she wrote that expresses the challenges and joys of a Maine spring. 

Ladder Into Spring

When all around me is you,
even the construction zone
of mud and broken fences
looks beautiful, because you are
turning and smiling
with the raw force of daffodils—
hope singing, like rising
little suns from tawny ground.

Imagine,
with petals strewn and vigil light–
in reverence our love rejoices,
your familiar face, up close and aged.

In this sad sweet sorrow
we are laughing until we cry.
Self-possessed with our camera,
what hilarity, how lucky
to be alive! When the willows
are weeping their new green,
and we, captured, take our gift of freedom
and easily climb ladders into spring.

“Spring Show” participating artists include Susan Amons, Janice Anthony, Ragna Bruno, Tom Curry, Heidi Daub, Gregory Dunham, Kate Emlen, Rick Fox, Philip Frey, June Grey, William Irvine, Joseph Keiffer, Sarah Lafontaine, Holly Meade (1956-2013), Emily Muir (1904-2003), John Neville, Linda Packard, Alison Rector, Lilian Day Thorpe and Katherine Wilkes.

Courthouse Gallery is at 6 Court St., Ellsworth. For gallery hours or more information, call 667-6611 or visit www.courthousegallery.com.