Caldbeck Gallery announces current exhibitions

    

From July 20 through August 13, the Caldbeck Gallery, 12 Elm Street in Rockland, will exhibit paintings in oil on panel and in oil on aluminum by Lois Dodd of Cushing and NYC, paintings in casein on panel by Alan Bray of Sangerville, photographs by Todd Watts of Blanchard, and paintings in oil and in acrylic on canvas and panel by Kayla Mohammadi of South Bristol and Boston.  A reception for the artists will take place on Wednesday, July 20, from 6 – 8 p.m. 

      Lois Dodd’s show, Selected Works, includes oil on aluminum painted as recently as last fall, to oil on panel painted as long ago as 1978.   The artist’s work is ageless: “Puddle #1” made in 1978, is as fresh and contemporary as Blossoming Branch, painted 38 years later, in 2016.    Dodd’s work has been shown widely in NYC and the U.S. for over 60 years; her first exhibit with the Caldbeck was in 1985; this is her 10^th solo show since then.

     Alan Bray works in the tradition of casein on panel, an ancient milk based tempera paint medium, which he discovered in 1973 while studying in Florence Italy at the Villa Schifanola Graduate School of Fine Arts.  In his paintings he uses the every day landscape places in his life; his favorite hikes into the wilderness of the North Woods of Maine as well as the cultivated tree farms and fields near his home take on a mystical presence.  By allowing his self-conscious awareness to dissolve, nature’s order becomes tangible. This is the artist’s 7^th solo show with the Caldbeck, where he has been represented since 2003.  

     In his first exhibit with the Caldbeck, Todd Watts has selected 13 photographs, printed in a 13 x 13 inch format, from his body of work titled The Blanchard Weather Report.  He explains that this body of work, which consists now of 40 images, began as a visual report sent to friends from away, who would ask him that timeless question, “what’s the weather doing up there in Blanchard?”.  Soon, a visual conversation and wordless documentary discourse was carried on over the internet.  In the first pictures there were objects – trees, and rocks, and streams, and grass – but the weather was the subject.  Then the artist began to see the weather as an object, providing color and line, mass and movement, time and history. A master darkroom printer, Watts works in the digital realm, now, too.  His work is in public collections across the globe, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC, The Fogg Museum in Cambridge MA, and the Portland Museum of Art in Maine. 

     In her 3rd solo Caldbeck show, Kayla Mohammadi: Recent Work,  Mohammadi will include both large canvases and smaller works on panel.   In working from observation, whether it be landscape, interior, or still life, the artist seeks a visual translation rather than a literal portrayal of her subject matter.  Her Finnish/Persian heritage is an important influence on her work, where fresh juxtapositions of form and color bring together unexpected places where we, the viewer, may encounter competing energies of memory and observation.  In her new work she pushes her imagery to become even more abstract.  The color is also more pure, which gives the work an edgier, vibrant touch.  “I have always loved color”, she explains, “Color is what attracted me to painting, and it is what keeps me painting – painting is where I explore how color relates to space, shape, and feeling.  My ambition is to delight the eye – I hope that this work accomplishes that goal”. Collections include the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC, The Victory Fund, the University of Washington, the NYU Langone Medical Center, and Boston University.  

     Gallery hours are Tuesday – Saturday 11 – 4, and Sunday 1 – 4.  For more information, please call the gallery at 207 594 5935, or email caldbeck@midcoast.com.