Open House at Turtle Gallery

In Turtle Gallery’s ongoing season celebrating its home on Deer Isle, five Maine artists will be showcased: William Holst, Mary Ann McKellar, Barbara Putnam, Michele Ratté and Adele Ursone among many others. 

An open house will be held from 3 to 6 p.m. Sept. 9. Light refreshments will be served.

William (Bill) Holst makes a posthumous return to Deer Isle as a representative of the Abstract Expressionist movement from the Hans Hoffman School. Throughout his career he spent time teaching at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts and worked up and down the east coast as a painter and an instructor.

Fiber artist Mary Ann McKellar produces fine handmade hooked rugs depicting scenes and wildlife of the Maine coast. She has taught hand papermaking at Haystack and been a guest artist at Penland School of Craft in Penland, North Carolina.

Michelle Ratté is a multimedia artist working in Belfast who combines collagraph prints and found materials to explore geological and botanical processes around marine environments. Her work has been shown allover New England.

Deer Isle resident, printmaker and quilt artist Barbara Putnam has focused her work on wetlands and fragile, transitional ecosystems and collaborating with scientific explorations of environmental issues. 

Adele Ursone was educated at the Pratt Institute in the 1970s as an abstract artist but gradually moved towards more realistic but atmospheric landscapes evoking a sense of place. She spends time in Deer Isle and New York City.

As part of this effort to give back to the community of 40 years, the gallery will contribute 4% of its profits this season to Island Workforce Housing, which is dedicated to creating affordable housing on Deer Isle.

The Turtle Gallery resides in an 1876 two-story barn and outdoor sculpture garden located at 61 N. Deer Isle Road on Route 15, just north of the Deer Isle village center. Hours are noon to 5:30 p.m. Friday through Sunday through mid-October and by appointment year-round. For more information, visit turtlegallery.com or call 207-348-9977, or find them on Facebook and Instagram @theturtlegallery.