Neal Hughes and Crista Pisano: Paintings from their travels in Maine, throughout the Eastern Seaboard and beyond at Sylvan Gallery

Neal Hughes and Crista Pisano reunite for the fourth exhibition of their work at Sylvan Gallery. The exhibition opened Aug. 6 and runs through Sept. 8.

A reception to meet the artists will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. Aug. 29, coinciding with the evening of the Wiscasset Art Walk. In conjunction, the gallery will also be displaying work from its regular roster of contemporary fine artists.

After a long winter, Hughes and Pisano began the spring by traveling extensively to many of the most prestigious plein-air competitions in the country — competitions that are renowned for the high quality of artistic talent that they attract. Quite often, these are weeklong outdoor painting events where, at the end of it, the individual artists compete for awards.

A selection of Hughes’ and Pisano’s paintings from this year’s plein-air events will be on view from such states as Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania and Michigan, as well as from their favorite painting locations along the Maine coast.

Coastal subjects and working waterfronts inspire much of Hughes’ work in the exhibition. “Lightkeeper’s House – Marshall Point,” at 20×20 inches, won Hughes his first award this year. Impressionistically painted, the front facade of the sunlit building contrasts beautifully with the cool tones of the blue-violet shadowed side of the building. The rich greens of foreground foliage is dotted with late summer flowers. The viewpoint is from the rocks looking up at the structure enabling Hughes to juxtapose the building against the darker pine trees. The rocks are captured in a full spectrum of colors from blues to violets, golds, and roses, and, with a combination of brush and palette knife work, they are individual yet cohesive as Hughes is a master of soft and sharp edges. The walkway to the light tower is skillfully cropped so the focus remains on the house. The flag blowing in the breeze and sweep of the clouds indicate the type of day it is. These are details that Hughes pays attention to and yet follows the philosophy that “too much precise detail and rendering with no emotional content can be boring.” He states that “In my opinion, the best paintings have a balance between poetry and nature. In other words, between a more expressive style and a totally realistic approach. To me, the genius of the best impressionist work, whether we are talking about the work that was done in the 19th century or more recently, is how it creates a visual experience that contains this type of balance.” Modern Impressionist Magazine awarded the painting a “First Place” in their December/January Modern Impressionist Salon.

Portland’s historic Custom House Wharf was quickly captured in Hughes’ “Morning Wharf,” at 11×14 inches. In this painting, the weathered facade of the south side of the wharf glistens on a sunlit day. Lobster boats are tied up at the old weathered dock where traps are repaired, nets mended, and fish are sold. Hughes manages to capture its unique qualities using a palette of blues, violets, emerald greens, and a few impressionistic dots and dashes of warmer tones. It’s a painting striking that perfect balance in capturing reality but in a poetic manner. Hughes was awarded two “Best of Show” awards this year for paintings of working harbors, one from the Olmsted Plein Air Invitational in Atlanta, GA, and the other “Best of Show” was achieved for his painting of a working dock at the Paint Grand Traverse plein air painting competition.

Two paintings of maritime subjects much larger in scale are “Morning Shadows,” at 30×30 inches, and “Summer Reflections,” at 36×36 inches. “Morning Shadows,” completed at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, is an up close view of a skiff pulled up on sawhorses that’s about to be worked on. A rustic storage shed is behind it with a partial view of the shop where larger boats are restored. Hughes varies his painting technique depending on the subject or mood he wishes to create, and, in this painting, expressive brushwork along with a palette knife, used to paint heavier passages, captures the feeling of the weather-beaten buildings and the old skiff. After blocking in the painting on the first day, he knew, when he returned to the scene for a second day of painting, that it was the quality of light and shadows at 10:30 a.m. that he would convey to make an exciting image. It’s all these considerations that enable Hughes to go beyond the ordinary, making his paintings so memorable. The main subject of “Summer Reflections,” is also an up close view of a boat, but this time it’s a sailboat at rest in Southwest Harbor. Hughes cropped in on the sailboat, focusing on the bow and hull; the sails are still unfurled. The reflections in the water of the shore, sailboat, and sky take up about two-thirds of the painting, and they are mesmerizing. Darker colors of ochres, violets, and greens of the shore, reflecting in the water, hold together as one mass; the brilliant blue sky, only evident by its reflection, holds together as the second mass; and the sunlit white sailboat and its reflection with yellow and turquoise green details, form the third mass. Energetic, gestural brushwork of broken reflections, from the movement of ripples in the water, combine both light and darker areas of color and contrast beautifully with the solid form of the sailboat. There’s an elegance and peacefulness to the painting, and Hughes once again brings his painting skills and vision to his subject to create a work that is unique and fresh.

Hughes worked as a freelance illustrator for many years for commercial clients. His first love was painting, and, eventually, he began selling his work in the fine art market and attending plein-air competitions. His awards throughout his career have been numerous, culminating in three “Best in Shows” and a “First Place” this year. Neal allows that, “There is always more to learn and the most important part to me has become the process and the experience. I do a lot of painting competitions, and the people I meet or that I get to paint with are also very important to me, and I feel very blessed to be a part of it all.”

“Walking Through the Clouds,” at 9×9 inches, is one of the low horizon distant views that Crista Pisano loves to paint. Here, soft forms of clouds that feel lit from within touch down to meet the green gold of the marsh. Pisano uses flecks of alizarin along a narrow inlet of water to lead our eye diagonally back to the horizon where narrow scrubby pines reach up to meet the clouds, holding our gaze in the distance. This painting was inspired by her travels to Kiawah Island in South Carolina and the eastern shore of Maryland. Pisano loves to focus on low marsh views, and when painting in her studio, has the artistic maturity to “borrow” ideas from two different locations. It was during the Paint Annapolis 2024, Annapolis, Maryland, competition in June that Pisano won the very special “Ardis Diaz Memorial Light Award.” Pisano excels at capturing the quiet beauty of the landscape while evoking a sense of place and moment.

Two of Pisano’s almost miniature-in-scale ocean paintings that capture the feeling of the quintessential Maine rocks and crashing surf are “Whoosh” at 2 1/2×6 3/8 inches and “Rocky Surf” at 1 7/8×5 7/8 inches. Painted on an overcast afternoon, both paintings have a Homer-esque quality to them. Pisano’s ability to capture the sublime power of the ocean on such a small scale is remarkable. Confident brushstrokes describe weather-beaten rocks, and one can almost smell the sea breeze and feel the spray from the ocean waves. In these smaller works, the focus is entirely on the rocks and waves, the sky is not in view.

Pisano’s small boat paintings are much sought after by collectors. Two new ones at 5 1/4×3 1/4 inches and 6×2 inches, recently painted in New Bern, North Carolina, will be on view. Pisano has a unique vision in cropping a complicated marina view into a slim vertical format. There is a dynamic rhythm to the lines of masts in the upper third of the paintings contrasting with the subtle arc of the waves rippling out toward the viewer. The water mirrors the overcast sky, and Pisano captures the silvery quality of the water with just a few tones of color. Pisano states that “I can never pass on painting a marina. I enjoy composing the rhythm of masts among the chaos of color, shape, and value of the vessels to which they belong. This subject matter is always intimidating at first until my brain convinces itself to look at the abstract from which the reality is created.” Pisano won the “Merchant Award” at Plein Air New Bern, New Bern, North Carolina, this year for her painting of their Harbor Village Marina.

Pisano has won numerous awards throughout her career and started this year by winning the “Best Nocturne Award” at the Olmstead Plein Air Invitational in Atlanta, 2024. Awards from the plein air events in North Carolina and Maryland quickly followed. Of all the awards that Pisano has won, the “Petite Plein Air, Artists Choice Award” at the Olmstead Plein Air Invitational in Atlanta, 2021 has probably meant the most to her. It was the first time that she won an “Artists Choice Award,” given by the competing artists who vote on their favorite painting. She was honored to have been selected for the award by her peers.

A selection of new work by the gallery’s other contemporary fine artists will also be on display, including Peter Layne Arguimbau, Joann Ballinger, Al Barker, Paul Batch, Angelo Franco Jr., Susannah Haney, Heather Gibson-Lusk, Stan Moeller, Robert Noreika, Ann Scanlan, Laura Winslow, and Shirley Cean Youngs. Work from the estate of the late artist Charles Kolnik will also be on view.

Sylvan Gallery is at 49 Water St., Wiscasset. Hours are 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. For more information, call Ann Scanlan at 207-882-8290 or go to www.sylvangallery.com. Find Sylvan Gallery on Instagram and Facebook.