A Change of Focus – Artist Insights from Julie Houck

Posted on by Maine Art

Not only will Julie Houck be exhibiting her skyscapes and landscapes in her 2020 summer show, but she is also sharing a few abstract works. 

“I am inspired by the interplay of light on the landscape, which is ever elusive and always changing,” shares Houck. “Painting softly allows me the opportunity to recreate that one particularly special moment when the land, light, and atmosphere seamlessly fuse.”

Conversely, Houck’s abstract works veer sharply from the physical world and find their inspiration by delving into the realm of painting what can only be felt, experienced, or thought. 

“This departure from the landscape is merely a change of focus from looking outward, to looking inward for inspiration,” explains Houck. “The possibilities are infinite.”

As an artist, Houck approaches each painting, believing that it is not enough to paint the literal view. 

“My goal is to also capture the essence of a place, emotion, thought, or idea and hopefully connect you viscerally to that experience.”

 

A more few links for Julie Houck

More stories from Julie Houck

Link to her complete collection of available works

Liz Hoag, Claire Bigbee, and Julie Houck 2020 Summer Show

A Painter’s Place: Among the Sea, Sky and Wind – Insights from Claire Bigbee

Posted on by Maine Art

Words from Claire Bigbee…

“Painting,” he said, “is just getting one spot of color in relation to another spot…. Let color make form, do not make form and Color it.” “Anything under the sun is beautiful if you have the vision — it is the seeing of the thing that makes it so.” 

This is one of my favorites quotes from Charles Hawthorne. It can be found in his book, Hawthorne on Painting. I always find myself pulling his book off the shelf to review his many painting pearls of wisdom.  

He talks about spots in relation to each other and looking for the brilliant colors in a landscape and making them a bit brighter than we see it. Rather than reproducing nature outdoors, which is almost impossible, he says to approximate by convention. 

My paintings are inventions of nature through careful observation of the color relationships when a piece is underway. I prefer this approach rather than the idea of reproducing nature. Staying open and in the moment gives me opportunities to see the accidents which can occur and can thrust a painting in a new direction. Those are thrilling moments when I’m on the edge of a piece, and I get lost for a while. There’s a certain amount of anxiety and tension that brings the painting alive. I take significant risks in those moments, and it always seems to pay off, the art starts to sing. It’s a dialog between me and the painting. The narrative of the view diminishes, and my voice becomes more apparent. 

I use color spots to create a view, not unlike the pointillist technique of painting small, distinct dots of color applied in patterns to form an image. My dots are much more significant. For tools, I use paint, a variety of palette knives, and short handle Princeton bristle brushes for my wide-sweeping marks, hands, or fingers. Almost anything works for mark making. 

The horizon line in my paintings establishes a point of reference to create distance. I use dramatic scale and color to create depth rather than value transitions. This flattens the picture plane, so color relationships create a luminous visual harmony. Music influences my painting sonnets. When I put down the first big, bold color stroke, it affects where I go next with color. I leave out insignificant details, so the viewer engages the painting. Getting caught up in the details is easy to do when painting plein air, but it’s narrative is too constricting for me. I like my paintings to capture vast spaces of color and large shapes to translate Maine’s beautiful monumental views. 

My approach is from an abstract viewpoint to achieve something solid, concrete, and permanent from nature. 

The views around me are classic Maine, a lulling sea with long-range tides, windswept clouds, all framed within Maine’s unmovable rocky coastline. There is comfort in the permanency of the Maine landscape. It’s a place I grew up and have been painting since I was young. I always come back to it for that reason.

Inspirational Artist Quotes

I try to construct a picture in which shapes, spaces, colors, form a set of unique relationships, independent of any subject matter. At the same time I try to capture and translate the excitement and emotion aroused in me by the impact with the original idea.– Milton Avery

 Nature is my springboard. From her I get my initial impetus. I have tried to relate the visible drama of mountains, trees, and bleached fields with the fantasy of wind blowing and changing colors and forms.  – Milton Avery

Follow these links to learn more about Claire Bigbee and her available works at Maine Art Hill

SUMMER SHOW with Liz Hoag and Julie Houck 2020

More Artist Insights from Claire Bigbee

All Available Works from Claire Bigbee

 

Pop-Up with Mike L’Antigua 2020

Posted on by Maine Art

Featured Artist, Mike L’Antigua is the guest artist for Pop-Up beginning Tuesday, August 25 to Monday, August 31. Read on to learn more about his inspiration, his process, and his work.

August 25 to August 31

“What is it that drives me to pick up a paintbrush? Although Art is in my blood, I first got inspired by my visit to the Renoir exhibit in Boston in 1985. Seeing those beautiful paintings up close and personally lit the fire. This began a love affair with the impressionists.

The first paintings were awkward and lousy. It did not take long to realize you need instruction in painting for it to go anywhere. After all, painting is 80% craft/skill. After trying out the workshop scene for 3 years I realized having six or seven voices in my head wasn’t working. so in 2016, I settled on a weekly class with a very talented artist and sound teacher in my area. Well, it worked wonders. Learning all the fundamentals of Representational Painting has elevated my work 1000 fold.

So where to go from there? After a lot of New England Seascapes and a lot of figurative painting, I circled back to Impressionism. You always go back to your first love. I am developing a Pond/Lilypad series these days with hopes of building a body of this work. There are some seascapes, landscapes, and figures mixed in.

I plan to continue many subject matters but try to paint them in a more impressionistic way. I hope you come along for the ride it should be fun.”

For more info about Mike L’Antigua check out the following links: 

mikelantiguafineart.com

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Summer Shows 2020 – Janis Sanders, Ingunn Milla Joergensen, and Jill Matthews

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Asking an artist why they paint or make any other form of art, is like asking a bird why it flies or a person why they breathe. For me, art is so deep and profound. ~ Artist Janis Sanders.

Shows on Maine Art Hill is hosting a three-artist show, featuring the works of oil painters, Janis Sanders, Ingunn Milla Joergensen, and Jill Matthews. Each artist has painted new pieces for this show beginning Saturday, August 8, and running through September 3.

Natalie Lane, Director of Galleries and General Manager of Maine Art Hill, says, “The early August opening of the Matthews, Sanders, and Joergensen show, is one I have been looking forward to all summer. The contrasting landscapes and seascapes compositions and color palettes range from bold to ethereal. They take us all on a journey of the senses through New England, and it’s seacoast with all its incarnations.”

Artist Janis Sanders has been with Maine Art Hill since 2010 and is well known for his love of the perfect blue in the company of a splash of yellow. With this show and each painting he paints, he gives his best effort to interact with the atmosphere of the scene.

“I stay focused, concentrate, and interact with the uniqueness of the interplay and path of these particular colors and nuances,” says Sanders. “Each painting is an individual journey, much like a musical score, in which one leads the other in tandem to completion. Some directions are more familiar, others open the doors wide to new latitudes and longitudes. You find both in this show.”

Ingunn Milla Joergensen is a local artist, who has called Kennebunkport home for many years now. Whether she is painting on location or finding inspiration in her fantastic backyard, her clean and open landscapes invoke calm and warmth. These feelings are difficult to put to words, but unmistakable when standing before her work.

“For a long time, I have tried to figure out how to move my passion for flowers and gardening in my work. To me, it makes complete sense to unite the two things that make me the happiest,” shares Joergensen. “Tying it all together is what I strive for in life. I have found a feeling of being grounded, being mindful, simplicity, and peace…and a whole lot of green!”

Another local artist, Jill Matthews, has traveled all over only to find her home back in Maine. A landscape artist with a few surprises, Matthews celebrates the area in soft colors and smooth brushstrokes. Like many artists who are encompassed by the beauty here, Matthews’s work is inspired and influenced by her surroundings.

“I am struck by things visually in an instant. Be it the way light plays off of something or the color interactions on a clear blue day. My favorite days are foggy days. They force my eye to see the beauty in simplicity,” says Matthews. “I strive for this in my pieces, strong uncluttered compositions. I always edit as I work, stripping away details, leaving a strength to what remains.”

All three artists have found their own unique way of capturing this beautiful area, and show beautifully together, both virtually and in person. Visit soon at Shows on Maine Art Hill at 10 Chase Hill Road in Kennebunk. The community is welcome to enjoy this three-week-long show. All the Maine Art Hill galleries are open every day at 10 am. FMI www.maine-art.com or 207-967-0049.

CLICK THE LINKS BELOW TO LEARN MORE

Virtual  2020 Summer Show

COMPLETE COLLECTION OF AVAILABLE WORKS

Ingunn Milla Joergensen

Janis Sanders

Jill Matthews

STORIES AND INSIGHTS FROM EACH ARTIST

Ingunn Milla Joergensen

Janis Sanders

Jill Matthews

 

Heirlooms in Bloom – Insights from Ingunn Milla Joergensen

Posted on by Maine Art

In this show, artist Ingunn Milla Joergensen has embraced a few of her passions, especially her flowers.

“For a long time, I have tried to figure out how to move my passion for flowers and gardening into my work. To me, it made complete sense to unite the two things that make me the happiest,” says Joergensen.

Tying it all together is what we all strive for in life. For Joergensen, it is the feeling of being grounded, being mindful, simplicity, and peace and, of course, a whole lot of green and blossoms.

“Since childhood, flowers have been my biggest passion and escape. I kept track of every flower in every meadow, knowing exactly when they would burst into bloom. What a joy when they did. Now I am lucky enough to have a large garden where we grow lots and lots of veggies and flowers of our own.”

Some of her precious blooms are actually heirlooms. Plants passed down from flower lovers to flower lovers. 

“When my great grandmother Milla married in early the 1900s, she received from her parents’ garden this beautiful peony plant,” explains Joergensen. “It was passed down through the generations and finally given to me.”

**Side note on the Counting Petals Series…

I love flowers, and dots always make me smile. Petals are like dots, …covering every shade of happiness. 

If you have the same love of Mother Nature’s best works, please visit Joergensen’s summer show. Alongside many blossoms, she celebrates all her loves with just as much passion as her flowers.  

FOR MORE ABOUT INGUNN FOLLOW THE LINKS BELOW

Complete Collection of Available Works from Ingunn Milla Joergensen

Stories and Artist Insights from Ingunn

 2020 Summer Show – Joergensen, Sanders, and Matthews

 

Less is So Much More – Artist Insights from Jill Matthews

Posted on by Maine Art

“I want to show less so we can see more,” says artist Jill Matthews.

This is the perfect description for her new works for her summer show. 

“My paintings have always been a representation of how I interpret the world,” Matthews explains. “My pieces hint at an exaggeration of simplicity. The process is often a removal of unnecessary elements, leaving strength to what remains.”

 

Matthews has always had a calm and peacefulness about her paintings. However, her recent works have taken the feeling to a level where simplicity gives these emotions breath.

   

“This process and the “why” of how I approach my work has never become more apparent to me, especially given the current times,” says Matthews. 

Narrowing down what is essential, what can stand alone without distractions.

“When the extra fades into the distance, it allows something stronger to move forward into clarity,” she says. “Often, we have to quiet the noise to truly see.”

Jill’s new work is available at 10 Chase Hill Road at the Show Gallery. Sales begin on August 8 at 10 am. 

To learn more about Jill Matthews and her work, click the links below. 

2020 Summer Show with Ingunn Joergensen and Janis Sanders 

Available Works from Jill Matthews

Stories and Insights from Jill Matthews

First Lives – Artist Janis Sanders Growing Up

Posted on by Maine Art

All of our artists have fascinating stories of growing up and what eventually leads them to the path they are on now. Artist Janis Sanders is no different. As a child growing up in Syracuse, he found pleasure and inspiration in every part of his world. Diversity makes a creative man, and for this artist, it certainly holds true.

A list of shared stories from Sanders…

As a boy, I built model cars and hotrods, detailed to the nth with paint and decals. Was it an art? Absolutely.

I played touch and tackle football with no pads but with a helmet. All the neighborhood kids joined in, sometimes including a brave one from the fairer sex. We played through all four seasons, including upstate New York blizzards. This build character if nothing else.

Once, with scrap wood slats and hand tools, I singlehandedly built a small boat that had a float time measured in seconds. Impressive, I know. Not the career path I chose, but certainly helped build a love of the craft. 

As a child, I had a friend, who now is a big TooDoo with NASA and a published author on aeronautics. Together we invested our hard-earned allowances in buying 8mm film and set up and shoot slow-motion reels of assorted scenes set up in the lawn in the backyard. The Artist and the Astronaut. We certainly needed nourishment after all that hard work. So, we’d hop on the bike and with a couple of other buds ride off to the local Carvel for a chocolate milkshake to keep the energy going. We did this twice daily for a summer or two. It was a great workout in the hills of Syracuse, and a great chance to take in the steamy bright summer days in the upstate. Did it fuel my artist heart? Undoubtedly.

Along the way, I’ve had stints with men’s a cappella, light opera, musical theater, and rock opera as a singer as well as a dancer. Yes, definitely fueled my artistic side.

For respite, however, even as a child, I would just lay back in the lush lawn and gaze up at the forms in the billowy clouds, pure white cotton set against endless blue summer sky. The sky’s the limit! In your imagination, in absorbing nature in its full summer bounty! 

Did I immerse myself in daily life? Did I live creatively? Yes. I still observe my lavish surroundings, and through osmosis, processing is set. To this day, my reverence for a place called home has not changed one iota. It may have even become stronger.

Take care of home. I have intended to express and implicitly convey the beauty of this cherished, precious, delicate place where I grew up, in the process, gently remind people to treat Her well and concomitantly treat ourselves well. You get what you give.

To see the end result of this driven and creative man visit Maine Art Hill anytime, but especially in the next few weeks for his summer show. From August 8 to September 3.  This show also features works from Ingunn Milla Joergensen and Jill Matthews.

CLICK THE LINKS BELOW TO LEARN MORE

Virtual  2020 Summer Show

Janis Sanders Complete Collection of Available Works

Janis Sanders -Stories and Insights

 

Barns – A Thank You for Ingunn Milla Joergensen

Posted on by Maine Art

If artist Ingunn Milla Joergensen had a signature piece, it would be her barns. They represent the past, the future, the quiet and calm, the strong and stable. Each one viewed is seen with new eyes that hold a history unique to the viewer.

From my desk, I am privy to many a story or comment as customers view the original art during our show seasons at Shows on Maine Art Hill. These snippets only confirm how art is individually seen and understood. It seemed only fair, that I let you in on just one of those moments.

Below is a letter from the new owner of Quiet Barn.  In it, she expresses the symbolism and meaning Quiet Barn held for her.

Quiet Barn by Ingunn Milla Joergensen

A Letter of Thanks to Ingunn

For all time, the pieces of my life are gathered into your beautiful painting. When I saw it, I forgot I was holding my breath. I searched all of your other paintings, which I loved for many reasons, but still, I returned to The Quiet Barn. I did not know why or how it has paused all of my existence into a moment of joy. I stopped, allowing the feeling to wash over me. How can such simplicity gather a lifetime?

Then I noticed on the left, two trees. It made me think of my husband and me as a young couple. In the right foreground, I saw three trees. Suddenly I was falling into the magic of our family triad of father, mother, and daughter. Another fragment of joy, that took me into another sanctuary, a family. My eyes soon moved to the four trees. I saw my daughter, married, and her twins, a boy, and a girl. All this and I still have yet to even comprehend the barn.

I grew up in Ohio with disappearing farmland and memory barns. But Maine, or wherever The Quiet Barn stands, represents that which cannot be lost or destroyed. The snow is quiet and always understated. The barn belongs to eternity. 

Although Quiet Barn now has a new home, we still have a few other Joergensen Barns at the gallery. Please visit Ingunn’s Artist Page to see them, and don’t forget about her 2020 Summer Show, August 8 to 31. 

FOR MORE ABOUT INGUNN FOLLOW THE LINKS BELOW

Complete Collection of Available Works from Ingunn Milla Joergensen

Stories and Artist Insights from Ingunn

 2020 Summer Show – Joergensen, Sanders, and Matthews

 

 

 

Getting By With a Little Help from His Friends – Artist Insights from Janis Sanders

Posted on by Maine Art

For artist, Janis Sanders, each painting is an individual journey, much like a musical score, in which one leads the other in tandem to completion. Some directions are more familiar, others open the doors wide to new latitudes and longitudes. You find both in this show. But where does the inspiration the drive, the desire come from? The Masters? Other creatives?

“It would have been great to paint with Monet,” shares Sanders. “In a very loose sense, I do. Every time I look at his work, especially Water Lilies, I roam through his layers and brushwork. I imagine his hand moving and making marks and wondering if we in sync.”

Sanders did have the honor and pleasure of meeting Wolf Kahn a few times in Vermont. Talk about inspiration.

“His colors are so bold, bright, forceful, honest, and direct, similar to the snippets of the personality I was able to engage with,” remembers Sanders.

 

When asked who else Sanders would love to share a studio with, even if only for a day…

“Caravaggio, solely for that Force of Nature. I’d also love to paint with Tony Bennett. I have made overtures, but I am still waiting for the telephone to ring,” Sanders laughs. “So that leaves Mick Jagger.”

To see the end result of this driven and creative man visit Maine Art Hill anytime, but especially in the next few weeks for his summer show. From August 8 to September 3.  This show also features works from Ingunn Milla Joergensen and Jill Matthews.  

CLICK THE LINKS BELOW TO LEARN MORE

Virtual  2020 Summer Show

Janis Sanders Complete Collection of Available Works

Janis Sanders -Stories and Insights

 

Pop-Up with markpizzaArt 2020

Posted on by Maine Art

Featured Artist, Mark Pizza is the guest artist for Pop-Up beginning Tuesday, August 4 to August 10. Read on to learn more about his inspiration, his process, and his work.

August 4 to August 10

“Growing up in New England, I have always been drawn to the power of nature but after moving to New York City, the city lifestyle had an enormous impact on my creative process. Creating a visual that can capture energy in a fleeting moment is what I hope to communicate. My work is rooted in photography with a contemporary approach; I incorporate a digital overlay technique of layering multiple images that results in a collaged effect.  I produce my images by using various traditional and digital photographic processes which are then printed on materials such as metal, acrylic, canvas, watercolor paper, and textiles.”

“The work I create represents my life, my experiences, and my evolution as an artist over the years. My work incorporates visuals of both city and rural landscapes with personal touches applied throughout each scene. My inspiration is based on capturing moments in time which are interpreted with the use of color, texture, shapes, light, and motion. Each piece reflects an influential moment or feeling that has occurred during my life and I hope to inspire my viewers to engage with their own moment of reflection.”

Mark Pizza is an expert in combining multiple photographic memories to create multilayered, surrealistic experiences. Pizza aims to evoke multiple responses, questions, and emotions from his viewers; calling his process a digital overlay technique to create a collage effect. Pizza’s final compositions range in size and are printed on a variety of materials, all dependent on the narrative and message of his work.

Pizza’s work is inspired by life events, as well as deep-rooted memories. Having lived in both rural and urban environments, Pizza translates his experiences into each piece which then represents an influential moment or feeling that occurred; his hope is to hold onto his memories, even as time passes, and to provoke his viewers to reflect on their lives, as well as further understand their sense of self.

For more info about markpizzaArt check out the following links: 

markpizzaart.com

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