In her painting “Lilac Season”, Hannah Ineson combines watercolor and pastel to interpret the Maine landscape.

Two Pemaquid Gallery artists are friends who live near each other in Maine, and also in Florida during winter months. They have art businesses in both places but are showing their coastal Maine landscapes, often interpreted in pastel, at the Pemaquid gallery.

Patti Leavitt of South Bristol and Bonita Springs, FL, works exclusively in pastel, giving her paintings a lush, deep color finish. Often she features buildings including farm scenes, as well as the quaint villages found along the Maine coast. She also finds subject material in woodlands and even still life, and she is currently developing seascapes as a primary interest. She is skilled also at portraiture and would like to devote more time to this subject. Sometimes her subjects even cross over from Maine to Florida, such as a beautifully rendered pile of buoys in the back of a truck.

Leavitt was born into a family of artists and cannot remember when she wasn’t painting and drawing. She is a member of the Southwest Florida Pastel Society, and shows frequently at the Center for the Arts in Bonita Springs, where she has received several awards in juried shows. After a decade or so at the Pemaquid Art Gallery, her paintings are a favorite with visitors.

Like Leavitt, Hannah Ineson of Damariscotta and Naples, FL, can claim many artists in her family, past and present. However she did not turn to painting herself until early adulthood, when she began working in watercolor and taking many workshops with nationally known painters drawn to the Maine coast during the summer. During the past four decades, she has explored print-making, oil, acrylic and pastel as well as watercolor. Describing herself as a “restless artist,” she is always experimenting with new subjects and techniques, and has pursued pottery for about ten years in Florida where she is an instructor at the Marco Island Center for the Arts..

Most recently, Ineson is showing colorful interpretations of the Maine landscape rendered in a combination of watercolor and pastel. She will also continue creating her highly textured paintings with a palette knife, in oil or acrylic. As an instructor in watercolor journaling, she is working on several projects including a how-to book, publishing an illustrated watercolor journal of Maine lighthouses, and an online journaling course with Artful Gathering.

Both artists show their work widely in the area. Ineson’s work also can be found on her website, www.hannahineson.com.

Visit the Pemaquid Gallery of Art this season to see the work of the following member artists: Barbara Applegate, Debra Arter, Bruce Babb, Julie Babb, Stephen Busch, Midge Coleman, Trudi Curtis, William Curtis, Dianne Dolan, Peggy Farrell, Sarah Fisher, Bill Hallett, Claire Hancock, Kay Sawyer Hannah, Kathleen Horst, Hannah Ineson, Will Kefauver, Jan Kilburn, Barbara Klein, Patti Leavitt, Sally Loughridge, Marlene Loznicka, Nancy MacKinnon, Judy Nixon, Paul Sherman, Cindy Spencer, Liliana Thelander, Ernest Thompson, Bob Vaughan, Steve Viega, Bev Walker, and guest artist Jane Bowman.

Artists all reside within the Lincoln County area. The Gallery is situated within Lighthouse Park at Pemaquid Point, Bristol and online at www.pemaquidartgallery.com. The gallery is open daily through Columbus Day, from 10 AM until 5 PM.