Choice Show 2020 – Artist Insights from Donald Rainville

I am often struck by how beautiful and untouched a wild place or garden can be, even when the summer is over, and it has gone to sleep. The frosts of the evening or early morning can bring to life a whole different kind of intricate white finery covering each sleeping stem and flower with a mysterious beauty.

Julia M. Doughty – Messenger, An Artist’s Choice

“My new body of work comprises five dragonflies and one honeybee, entitled Awakening. I am moving towards bees and other insects,” says Doughty. “The bee symbolizes brightness and harmony in the community, as well as new life and awakening. They bring me joy.  I understand how hard their plight has been as a result of our activity, hence climate change, on the earth. There is also symbolism as to how we rebuild our communities, jobs, and lives on the other side of the pandemic.”

Karen Bruson – An Artist Choice, Bayside Bunch

I’m pleased with the simplification or abstraction of the figures. I really have fun painting crowds of people on the beach. I join in on a family Ogunquit vacation every summer, and that is where I get most of my subject matter. The beaches are always so crazy busy with splashes of color everywhere, and I so connect with the noisy vibration and overstimulation of it all.

Susan Tobey White – An Artist Choice, Rhythm in Red and Dancing

“I taped a large 36×48 watercolor paper to the wall. I put on some good-to-move-to tunes and started painting,” tells White. “A large, full hipped woman appeared….totally unplanned. I stepped back. ‘Where did she come from?’ I started adding details and patterns using color intuitively.”

Heather Blanton’s Special Surfers – Artist Choice for 9th Annual Choice Show 2020

“Special Surfers is an aerial view of my vision of Gooch’s Beach in Kennebunk. I tried to show the fun by doing a birds-eye view of this amazing event,” shares Heather Blanton. “I wanted a piece that was Kennebunk centric as Maine Art Hill is really a Maine core gallery. It was my hope to bring a special part of Maine into a piece for the Choice Show.”