Baldwin House on Monhegan Island inspires group exhibition ‘Above Us Only Sky’ on view at the Camden Public Library

In the spirit of “UMVA Members and Friends,” three UMVA member artists, Mary Brooking of Westbrook, Jane Gilbert of Orland and Key West, and exhibition organizer Deb Vendetti of South Hope, along with invited guest Dee Peppe of Rockland, will exhibit work at the Camden Public Library, 55 Main St., Camden.

“Above Us Only Sky” runs from June 1 to 27 with a reception on June 1.

The exhibition title refers to the artists’ collective dialogues with light and sky while staying at the Baldwin House on Monhegan Island. The exhibition also includes images collected in other locations, inspired by Monhegan as muse.

Brooking uses many layers of paint, frequently obliterating certain elements as the paintings progress, “challenging myself always to distill and reduce my original reaction to its exact essence and nothing more, my paintings are spaces meant to test the balance between reality and abstraction.”

After a career as an art therapist and a fine art photographer, Gilbert returned to her first love, painting, and now paints full time in Key West and Maine. “For about 20 years, I’ve been meeting my friend and fellow artist Deb Vendetti on Monhegan Island for a week of painting, photographing and simply enjoying nature. In recent years, we’ve been joined by other artists, and just last summer were able to experience the sweeping panorama of sky, ocean, Manana Island and the mainland from the Baldwin Cottage.”

Invited guest and UMVA friend, photographer Peppe will exhibit images that are inspired by the color of light after sunset, including both natural and artificial lights. Peppe is a longtime local, fine-art photographer and professor at various Maine colleges. She has led photography travel workshops to France, Belize and Guatemala and has taught photography in the workshop format since 1990.

“The importance of quiet time, in a supported and unstructured format and in the fellowship of other artists, immersing oneself in a place, these are the moments of grace when one is removed from distraction and invited to enter the dialog,” said Vendetti, a UMVA member. 

UMVA, founded in 1975, is a nonprofit organization that promotes and advocates for the visual arts, artists and all arts supporters. The Carlo Pittore Costume Ball and Art Auction, a 50th anniversary fundraiser is set for 7 to 11 p.m. Aug. 3, 2024 at Merrymeeting Hall, 27 Main St., Bowdoinham.

As artist advocates, the UMVA initiated and saw enacted into state law the Maine Percent for Art Program (requiring a percentage of funds for state buildings to include art) and the Artist’s Estate Tax Law (allowing art work to be used to pay artists estate taxes).

Learn more at theumva.org.