Two guest artists with distinct but complementary visions are being featured at Local Color Gallery. Maggie Sanftleben and Karen Olson share work that reflects their respective journeys into the natural world, both its surfaces and its spirit. A reception was held for Fourth Friday Gallery Night on April 25, with artist talks.
After a 25-year career in Boston as a graphic designer and art director, Maggie Sanftleben relocated to coastal Southern Maine, where the interplay of light and landscape called her back to painting. The move not only changed her scenery but also her medium: Sanftleben now works with encaustic — painting with molten beeswax combined with pigments — layering pastels, ink, charcoal, graphite and photography into her compositions. Using a propane torch, she fuses these elements together, creating textured works that pulse with movement. The results are not traditional landscapes but impressions of them, evoking the rhythm, energy, and hue of natural spaces rather than aiming for exact depiction. Her works “Tidal Pool 1” and “Swirl and Swell” capture the essence of place through an alchemical balance of control and fluidity.
Returning to Local Color is Karen Olson, whose work exists at the intersection of art, ecology, and quiet reverence. A papermaker and paper sculptor as well as a lens-based artist, Olson engages with the land as both subject and collaborator. Her recent work utilizes Himalayan Balsam gathered from the wild edges of her home landscape. Transformed into golden-hued paper and delicate paper lace, the invasive plant becomes a medium for emotional and environmental inquiry. In pieces like “Mutual Presence” and “Deep Awareness,” Olson incorporates beeswax, handmade paper, and linen cord into sculptural prints that feel both scientific and sacred. “It was an imaginal time as I allowed the material to direct my heart and my hands,” she says of the process. For Olson, art is a channel for sensory communication and a tool for exploring how connection to nature can nourish both individual well-being and shared understanding.
Local Color Gallery is at 135 High St., Belfast. Hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Learn more at localcolorgallerymaine.com.
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Local Color Gallery in Belfast is pleased to welcome guest artist Bernadette deCesare (March 25-April 19) and year-round artist Emma Schurink. Sadly, Debbie Mitchell, a founding member/owner of the gallery, is retiring. DeCesare and Schurink will speak about their work at this month’s Fourth Friday Gallery Night, which runs from 4 to 7 p.m. March […]
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The Maine Museum of Photographic Arts has a new home in Portland. You did it! Your donations and support helped us acquire our new space! This isn’t the end of our capital campaign or construction needs, but we’ve jumped the largest hurdle and we have new keys thanks to you! Now we can start planning […]
“Displacement: Immigrant Portraits” arrives at the Rockport Public Library, 1 Limerock St., Rockport, from March 4 to 28, bringing a timely and quietly forceful body of watercolor work by Jean Kigel into a public civic space. Kigel’s portraits depict immigrants from India, China, Gaza, Ukraine, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Venezuela, Mexico and Latin America, […]
One of the most idiosyncratic artists of post-War American art, Robert Hamilton (1917-2004) taught painting and drawing at the Rhode Island School of Design for 34years. Yvonne Jacquette, Richard Merkin, George Lloyd and Dean Richardson were some of his many students. For Hamilton, who flew over 100 missions in WW II as a P-47 fighter […]
Calling all local parents and educators! Meetinghouse Arts in Freeport is officially inviting all student artists (grades K-12) to submit their work for an exhibition celebrating Youth Art Month 2026. Whether your students are painters, sculptors, or digital creators, this is their moment to shine in a professional gallery setting. Registration closes March 20. Details […]
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