Two member artists of the Pemaquid Art Gallery, Jan Kilburn and Hannah Ineson, couldn’t be more different in the art they now create but are similar in working in new mediums, or at least mediums which are new to their fans, and are proving to be highly successful with these new directions.

They both show in Mid-Coast Maine and both are well known in other locations where they spend the winter and/or teach, Ineson in Southwest Florida and Kilburn in New Hampshire. They are both also much-in-demand teachers of their art and love teaching.

With the physical space of the Pemaquid Gallery closed this season due to Covid-19 precautions, then gallery is highlighting member artists throughout the season, whose work can be viewed and purchased online at pemaquidartgallery.com.

Jan Kilburn is a watercolorist from Damariscotta, and has a studio on the Bristol Road, which is part of a group of four galleries called The Bristol Road Galleries. She is primarily self-taught but has also studied with several great watercolorists and teaches much sought-after courses in watercolor in both mid-coast Maine and Dover, New Hampshire. Her prints and notecards are available in many mid-coast Maine locations. Her watercolors resonate with color, lyricism and a light beauty and warmth which express her desire to create “a peaceful place to which to escape” —much needed in these difficult times. She exploits the unexpected effects of watercolor in a masterful way and the viewer feels her love of the medium in the beautiful washes, varied edges and graceful sweep of her brushstrokes. 

She has recently started oil painting, studying with fellow Bristol Road gallery owner and Pemaquid member artist Will Kefauver, and her oil paintings carry on the same lightness of spirit, love of color and dancing movement across the paint surface as do her watercolors. The atmosphere they depict is welcoming, joyous and sparkling, providing yet again a peaceful place for the viewer to contemplate.

Hannah Ineson describes herself as a restless artist. She has 40 years of award-winning watercolor and oil painting under her belt, dividing her time between summers in Damariscotta and winters in Southwest Florida where she teaches at the Marco Island Center for the Arts and was Artist in Residence in the Everglades Big Cypress National Preserve. She teaches in the summer at her studio in Damariscotta and shows her work there, and also has taught in Mexico for Elderhostel, Wisconsin and many other locations. Her card and print designs have been popular in both Florida and Maine. She also teaches watercolor journaling, now on Zoom, and has self-published the Guide to Sketch Journaling with Watercolor.

Her new direction is pottery (clay art) and she creates a variety of useful ware as well as sculpture and decorative pieces. She says she chose learning a 3D craft for her own pleasure and finds clay well suited to her skills and enjoyable for its versatility. She loves texture and surface treatment, of which clay offers endless opportunity with which to experiment, and her clay work is almost all hand-built. Her pieces are charming, useful and beautiful, with playful impressions and textures in richly colored glazes.