Local Color Gallery introduces guest and three new full-time artists on Fourth Friday

Local Color Gallery hosted a Fourth Friday Art Walk reception on May 24 featuring Van Bankston, the new guest artist, and three new full-time artists, Susan Smith, Shelley Breton and Ruth Heffron. Bankston’s bold colors and non-representational geometric pieces are on view at the gallery for three months beginning May 21.

“This series of paintings furthers my spiritual evolution away from materialism and the status quo,” Bankston says. “My art is an invitation to enter a contemplative space where the mind may experience the satisfaction of the present moment through the abstract essences of color, balance, line, form and texture. My art is about the relationship between myself and the painting, the painting and the viewer, and the viewer with him or herself.”

A Belfast artist, Bankston was born and grew up in the Mississippi Delta. He has degrees in landscape architecture, education and theology. He has also studied at the New York School of Interior Design and the Fashion Institute of Technology. After years in New York City as an interior designer, he returned to Mississippi and worked full-time as an artist, which ultimately led to a call to the priesthood. He has served as an Episcopal priest since 2012.

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.