Ellen Welch Granter in BIRD – A Maine Art Show

Ellen Welch Granter, by Ric Kasini Kadour

Ellen Welch Granter’s paintings, on the surface, read as straightforward, representational renderings of birds, but on closer inspection, they are deeply poetic paintings.

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Granter studied Chinese in Hong Kong and Beijing and earned a Master’s degree in Chinese History from the University of Vermont in 1988. A number of Granter’s compositions are reminiscent of 12th century Chinese Emperor Huizong, whose suprarealistic style portrayed bird movements in a manner that privileged the rendering of their spirit over their literal representation. The British Museum writes, “Huizong saw his paintings as the representation of a perfect and harmonious world. His careful rendering of each element and skillful balance of form and void are characteristics which influenced the academic style of the Song dynasty.” Granter takes a similar approach. The sandpipers in Beginning perch, poke, and prance around an ethereal shore that is rendered as a glossy pool of blues and stripes of shiny gold. This compositional play keeps her paintings fresh and the focus on the gestural movements of the birds.

“To brush dabs of oil on a surface, in a human effort to capture the sublime, is a challenge that has made me hyper-aware of the textures, shapes, and patterns of daily life,” writes Granter. “I believe that a beautiful painting is both a gift of vision and a testament of appreciation for our short lives here on this beautiful Earth.”

In a few paintings, Granter employs a different approach. In Edge, three sandpipers peck the sand for food. A gentle landscape rises in the top of the painting. A few paintings experiment with solid blocks of color. “I am searching for an elegant balance of spare compositions over large fields of luminous color,” wrote Granter. The white birds in Random highlight and bring to life the Rothkoesque red background. Every Fifth is a playful painting in which a series of chickadees occupy the bar of gold leaf that breaks up the blue field. The title refers to the fact that Granter portrays the chickadees from every possible viewpoint. Granter’s paintings show us a romance between the birds and the artist, how she invites them into her paintings, and how they are beautiful.

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The entire show, BIRD, can be seen at 10 Chase Hill Road in Kennebunk at the Maine Art Shows Gallery. You can also visit on-line at BIRD. To see Maine Art Painting and Sculpture’s complete collection of Ellen Granter’s work, click on her Artist Page or visit us at 14 Western Ave, Kennebunk, Maine.

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Everybody Likes Birds, by Ric Kasini Kadour

Last year marked two important anniversaries related to birds. A hundred years have passed since the passenger pigeon, that once was so numerous flocks of them blackened American skies for days, became extinct. Fifty years have passed since Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Wilderness Act of 1964 into law. In addition to protecting over 110 million acres of land, over the years, the law has made sure birds had places to nest and breed. The law is one of the reasons many of the birds featured in this catalog did not go the way of the passenger pigeon, why they are still around today for us to enjoy and for these artists to observe.

The British naturalist David Attenborough remarked, “Everyone likes birds. What wild creature is more accessible to our eyes and ears, as close to us and everyone in the world, as universal as a bird?”

From the Ba-Birds of ancient Egyptian art to the totem poles and prints of the Kwakwaka’wakw in the Pacific Northwest, the bird in art has always been a powerful, transformative image. When mankind first started making art, he drew birds on the walls of caves. For much of art history, artists used birds as spiritual symbols in religious painting. The only people painting birds as birds were ornithologists like John James Audubon or Alexander Wilson, whose paintings served a scientific purpose and weren’t treated as fine art until well after their deaths, when notions of art broadened. With the advent of Modernism, the image of the bird continued to be a rich subject for artists.

The six artists featured in this catalog feature birds in a variety of different ways. The realism of Ellen Welch Granter’s depictions of birds is counterbalanced by her sensitive compositions which are themselves evocative of 12th century Chinese paintings. Elizabeth Ostrander uses birds to express a mystical fantasy world in ceramic and acrylic sculptures that serve as tools for truth seeking and personal reflection. The appearance of birds in Abbie Williams’ paintings is a natural extension of her approach to landscape painting. She gives them the same loving attention she would flowers in a field or a tree in the distance. Patrick Plourde uses vintage steel, found objects, and over twenty-five years of experience manipulating these materials to make sculptures of ducks, vultures, and herons. David Witbeck paints with the wit and eye of a freelance photographer and often uses birds as part of a constellation of elements that makes a composition tell a story. James Rivington Pyne’s sculptures show an attentiveness to the nobility and sometimes quirkiness of sandpipers, terns, green longtails, pelicans, and crows.

All of these artists have in common a love of birds. Their keen observations of them help give their paintings and sculpture a veracity that ultimately allows us share in their affections. Everyone likes birds, indeed.

Click BIRDS to see the on-line show, or come and visit at Kennebunk Art Shows starting Saturday August 8th.  The show will run until September 7th.

Ric Kasini Kadour is a writer and artist from Montreal, Quebec. He is a frequent contributor to Art New England.

BIRD Starts Tomorrow – August 8th – September 7th

On the first floor of 10 Chase Hill Road, Maine Art Shows is receiving its last makeover of the summer.  All the pieces from the previous show, Maine. As they see it., are being taken down and shipped off to their new owners, wires are being tightened or restrung, and sculptures and paintings for the next show are being placed and hung. Tomorrow is August 8th, and the last show of the season opens; BIRD. For this final show, six artists – three sculptors and three painters – have come together to celebrate these winged creatures.

Half expecting to hear bird songs, you enter the door to Maine Art Shows and are greeted by color and depth, beauty and whimsy, grace and tranquility.  This show not only has a theme, it has a feeling. Happy. It’s that simple. It is impossible not to smile while wandering from room to room and discovering the differences and similarities between each of these artists and their representation of the birds they love.

Come in and visit the paintings of Ellen Welch Granter, Abbie Williams and David Witbeck, and spend time with the sculptures of Elizabeth Ostrander, Patrick Plourde and James Rivington Pyne.  Each artist captures the heart and soul of the bird in a way that is classic and true to their own personalities and artistic styles.  From the serene and quiet beauty of Ellen Welch Granter to the humor and fun characters of David Witbeck, and so much in between, every viewer will find something to connect with.

The show opens on Saturday, August 8th and runs until Labor Day, September 7th.  On Saturday, August 8th, the gallery will be open during it’s regular hours of 11-5, but will remain open until 7 p.m. with an open house to welcome any and all bird lovers and art collectors in the area. Come and enjoy a glass of wine and hors d’oeuvres and enter into this wonderful new show, BIRD.

If you will not be able to make it to Kennebunk to view the show in person, please check out our on-line show. BIRDS.  The Maine Art Paintings and Sculpture website can put you in touch with someone that can help you, as well as show you other works by all these wonderful artists.

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James Rivington Pyne in BIRD – A Maine Art Show

James Rivington Pyne by Ric Kasini Kadour

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Sandpipers, terns, green longtails, pelicans, crows, and many other birds make up the volary of James Rivington Pyne’s sculpture. This self-taught artist is known for an attentiveness that captures the subtle gestures, stance, or temperament of his avian subjects while preserving and honoring the natural quirkiness of birds. His Stilt Sandpiper teeters on its long legs; Tern goofily flocks; and White Speckled Bird, Wings Up struts his pretty wings and long beak.

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“I try to capture, in birds for instance, either the subject’s extreme stillness (a heron fishing) or its opposite,” said Pyne. “I find the best way to express a bird’s edginess on a limb or briskness in flight is by rough, almost blurred outlines, similar to a sketch, rather than smooth finishes.”

After a career teaching English in the Philadelphia public school system, Pyne turned summertime residency in Maine into a full-time home. He began making sculpture out of driftwood and graduated to epoxies, plaster, casting stone, wood and bronze. His composite sculptures demonstrate a deep understanding of modeling, building, and craft.

“My work is stylized but the subject is never unrecognizable. A source of inspiration for me are the 18th Century animal miscellanies depicting creatures drawn by artists whose sole knowledge of their subjects came, not from actual sighting but from hearsay, folklore, and in some cases a desire to amuse or terrify.”

James has several pieces in the show BIRD, as well as a wonderful collection at Maine Art Paintings and Sculpture at 14 Western Avenue in Kennebunk.  You can see it in person or on-line on his Artist Page.

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BIRD will be at Maine Art Shows until September 7th. Come visit any day from 11-5 or view the entire show on-line at BIRD.

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Elizabeth Ostrander in BIRD – A Maine Art Show

Elizabeth Ostrander by Ric Kasini Kadour

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In her ceramic and acrylic sculptures, Elizabeth Ostrander expresses a mystical fantasy world. She uses her sculptures to express ideas of self-agency and selfhood. She embeds these ideas in a mythology that is loosely informed by Paleolithic imagery and an assortment of fables and stories from long gone civilizations. The results are timeless sculptures that are magical, cosmic and earthy.

The Spanish influence in her work comes from her studies with Jose de Creeft at The Art Students League of New York in the 1960s. As a child, the Spanish-born de Creeft sculpted religious figures in clay to sell at the Festival of Santa Lucia in Barcelona. After a career in Europe, in 1929 he emigrated to the United States where he pioneered direct carving and became a master of figural works of women. Ostrander continues his legacy.

Crow Totem is a testament to Ostrander’s ability to create powerful symbols. The two-foot-tall inverted cone sculpture features the head of a crow. Its wingless, legless body is marked and scratched in a manner that conveys a sense of timelessness. Her sculptures lend themselves to a kind of fabulism. Trust is the bust of a woman. She rests her head towards the bird on her shoulder. In her chest, another bird sits on a nest. Ostrander draws a connection between the woman’s outward communication with the bird on her shoulder and the feelings one has, as expressed by the bird and nest occupying the space where her heart is. The use of bird as a metaphor repeats itself in Gentle, where a bird rests in the palm of an outstretched hand. These elements or strategies come together in Shiny Heart Cache, where a totemic crow is revealed to have a heart surrounded by nest-like string. Ostrander’s sculptures, while narrative in appearance, are designed to be pondered, to be used as tools for truth seeking and personal reflection.

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If you would like to see more of Elizabeth’s work, we welcome you to visit Maine Art Paintings and Sculpture at 14 Western Avenue in Kennebunk, or online at her Artist Page.

BIRD will run at Maine Art Shows, 10 Chase Hill Road in Kennebunk for four weeks. From August 8th – September 7th.

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David Witbeck in BIRD – A Maine Art Show

David Witbeck  by Ric Kasini Kadour

 

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The gull perched on the bollard in David Witbeck’s Harbor Gulls is watching you. They are fighting over chum in Free Lunch. And one is calling out to the sunrise in Morning Gulls. When they are not the subject, Witbeck uses birds in his paintings as a call to action, a source of drama, and sometimes a point of humor. David Witbeck studied art at the Pratt Institute and the Rhode Island School of Design, and photojournalism at Rochester Institute of Technology. He worked as a freelance photographer for over twenty-five years. He took up painting in 2000 and has steadily exhibited his work across New England.

Witbeck paints with the wit and eye of a freelance photographer always on the lookout for the perfect constellation of elements that will make a composition tell a story. Often the birds in his paintings obscure and temper the scenes around them. This allows the viewer to parse the painting in a different way. For example, the prominence of the birds in Morning Gulls distracts the viewer from the fact that the painting is a landscape, a simple rendition of the sun rising over an island out in the water. The quieter of the two birds stares at the viewer, almost daring you to notice what is going on. Look closely at Free Lunch and you will see that the fisherman is sacrificing his chum to distract the birds from the large lobster he holds in his hand. By contrast, when birds are the only subject, Witbeck portrays them with humility, as in the simple rendering of gulls in Conspirators, or with nobility, as in his paintings of cormorants where he shows the birds perching, wings spread, nodding to the heavens.

Click on David’s Artist Page to see Maine Art Painting and Sculpture’s entire Witbeck collection or visit us at 14 Western Ave. Kennebunk, Maine.

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Listen – Ellen Welch Granter

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Ellen Welch Granter | Listen | Oil on Canvas | 40″ X 40”  $4200

Goose Rocks Beach is a lovely little beach just off the beaten path in Kennebunkport.  With over three miles of beautiful sand, it is a perfect spot to spend the day.  However, when visitors take just a few minutes to look behind them, they notice the Batson River Marsh. It is here Ellen Welch Granter has found her perfect image of Maine.

“I remember the thick green grass seeming perfectly even for a huge distance. It is peaceful scene, but I chose to named the painting Listen,” says Granter. “If you truly listen, it isn’t really quiet. You can hear willets, piping plovers, terns, gulls, and a myriad of insects all around.” So often, the majestic crash of waves and never-ending span of sea hold our attention, and the casual beauty of the small marshes and winding rivers that feed the oceans are overlooked. “Listen” is all about not overlooking this place and this moment.

Locally, the marsh is known for more than just its beauty. “We used to dig clams there, getting eaten alive by greenies, of course, but it was worth it,” says Granter. The rules and regulations for clam digging are getting stricter here in Maine, but carrying a clam fork and a bucket along the coast at low tide, is a memory many of us can claim. The horse flies, or ‘greenies’ as Ellen calls them, are still included, no license necessary.

Ellen’s piece, Listen, will be on display until August 6th at Maine Art Shows in Kennebunk. The Maine. As they see it. show has been a wonderful success, and we welcome you to visit any day from 11-5.

Maine Art Paintings and Sculpture, down at 14 Western Avenue in Kennebunk, is lacking in the painful little green horse flies, but to make up for it, we do have a wonderful collection of Ellen Welch Granter’s work. We encourage you to come visit here as well, or to see the collection online on her Artist Page.

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Late Light – Janis H. Sanders

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Janis H. Sanders | Late Light | Oil on Panel | 40″ X 40”  $6800

“This house, this place, this moment are from another time, “ says Janis Sanders about “Late Light.” “Back when there was time…time to look, time to stop, time to absorb, time to imagine.” Anyone can see Maine. It is a true gift to see it through an artist’s eyes, such as Sanders.  The show, Maine. As they see it., was created for pieces like this; for artists like this. “’Late Light‘ is a place and a moment and a fragment in an overly hectic world,” Janis explains. “Here there is still a slice of present, of being here, in the here.”

Standing in front of this work, we, as guests, are allowed to create our own backstory. We are allowed to create our own ‘here.’  We wonder about the little home nestled between pine and sea, and we question what went through the artist’s mind as he sat down and began to paint. Ironically, the questions that went through his mind are not that unlike our own. “I was awestruck with this house, the late afternoon light, the furrowed coast rocks at half tide,” remembers Sanders. “When I first saw this scene there was a elegant thin woman in a straw hat standing on her front porch. She was looking across the glimmering water toward the west, her gaze intent on some unknown spot or object. I fell in love!”  Part of the wonder of “Late Light” is the fact that it is a reality, not a creation in an artist’s imagination. It is truly a charming scene Janis had the luck of stumbling upon on Five Islands in Georgetown, Maine. Even though he witnessed it, even though he experienced this place himself, still he had questions; questions about the house and questions about the woman.

“Who is she? Was it built for her? Did she build it with her own hands? What does she paint?  Does she rise with the sun each day?  What is the first thing she sees?  What is the last thing she sees?  What are the colors and textures of the day? Is there fog? Early day soft salmon colored skies?  There is no boat at her dock, how much privacy does she seek?  Has she grayed along with the weathered shingles of her home?  Have they stood together and built character together through storms and joys on this rugged shore through the many years?  Would she speak and reply if addressed answering my inquisitiveness, or would she stand silent, stoic with her porch overflowing with late day sunlight,  looking into the distance, following the sun across time?”

In art, there is always room for interpretation from the artist and the viewer. It is important to wonder, to reflect, to speculate. So… the big question… why does Sanders choose not to paint the figure of the woman he fell in love with? We don’t know, but it is a really good question.

If you too have fallen in love with the work of Janis H. Sanders and would like to see more, please visit the gallery at 14 Western Avenue or view it online on his Artist Page. Maine Art Paintings and Sculpture is very proud to have such a wonderful collection of his work. We also welcome you to see the rest of the Maine. As they see it. show at Maine Art Shows, 10 Chase Hill Road in Kennebunk or online at Maine. As they see it.

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The Breakers – Ed Hicks

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Ed Hicks | The Breakers | Oil on Canvas | 20″ X 40”.  $3100

For Ed Hicks it is about the painting. He lets nature provide a beginning and adds unseen details to  bring himself into the work.  He hopes his viewers are able to do the same each time they visit a piece and find something new. Hicks feels the painting should speak for itself.  “I believe a painting is to express something that can’t be said with words,” says Hicks. Why should we add any more words to what is already in front of you?

However, we will tell you this…

When asked about his piece, “The Breakers,” that he submitted for Maine. As they see it., the passion for his work was completely evident.  “I chose the subject, wild water and rocks, because it’s Maine the way I see it. If I could not FEEL the excitement, splendor, and power of the sea I might as well take up knitting.”

No more words needed.

The Maine. As they see it., show is all about the strong connection these artists have to Maine. It’s how they view it, and according to Hicks, “This painting feels like Maine!”  Ed also has several pieces at Maine Art Paintings and Sculpture at 14 Western Avenue in Kennebunk. Please stop by to see more of his work or visit his Artist Page on-line.

We also encourage you to come in and see the entire Maine. As they see it., collection at Maine Art Shows at 10 Chase Hill Road in Kennebunk.  If you can’t make it in, please feel free to spend some time at the on-line show. Maine. As they see it.

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Choices – Daniel J. Corey

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Daniel J. Corey | Choices | Oil on Canvas | 32″ X 28″ $3000

Autumn is a favorite time of year for many visitors and locals alike. The deep green leaves change to dynamic reds, oranges, and yellows. Corn husks and hay bails decorate doorways, and burgundy and rust colored mums replace the geraniums and hydrangeas. Then, of course, there are the pumpkins. Fields of them. The search for the perfect one inspires all ages, and brings us to perfect little road-side stands to discover our own piece of autumn.

Daniel J. Corey’s inspiration for Maine. As they see it. started from just that place. “Choices” was influenced by one of those perfect little farm stands scattered around the state.  Beth’s Farm Stand is in Warren, Maine; a small town just inland from Rockland. Whether it is a warm biscuit covered in strawberries, fresh made apple crisp, or, as it was for Daniel, the very large selection of pumpkins during that harvest, Beth’s place is a welcome stop when poking around the backroads of Maine. “To me, ‘Choices’ represents a time of year.  There is a crispness and chill in the air calling for a few more calories in the diet and clothing of a certain weight,” says Corey.

The pumpkin patch brings out the kid in us all. Cider is shared with family, friends and the heat from the first wood stove fire is cozy. “This represents my favorite time of year. It’s why I chose it,” says Corey.  “I am happy when a painting makes me smile. This one does.”

No matter the time of year, “Choices” is a beautiful addition to any art collection. If you are interested in seeing it in person, please visit Maine Art Shows at 10 Chase Hill Road in Kennebunk.  The Maine. As they see it. show will be running until August 6th. Stop by anytime between 11-5.  Daniel also has a wonderful collection of work at Maine Art Paintings and Sculpture down the hill at 14 Western Avenue in Kennebunk. If you are in the area, we encourage you to visit both galleries, or as always, you can view Daniel’s work on his Artist Page.

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