ROCKLAND— Celebrate autumn colors and the changing seasons with a new selection of paintings and local works of art at Archipelago. The Island Institute’s store and gallery will host an opening reception for its fall gallery show on Friday, November 3rd, from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., during Rockland’s First Friday Art Walk. The public is invited to stop into the gallery’s 386 Main Street location to enjoy light refreshments, see the new pieces, and meet some of the artists. The show, which highlights the work of printmaker Kathleen Buchanan, painters Claudia Diller and Helene Farrar, and fiber artist Anne Walker will be on display through the Winter.
Kathleen Buchanan is a Midcoast printmaker whose work focuses on collagraph printing, where a handmade print made of a collage of various material is generated off a printing plate. Educated and employed as a biologist prior becoming a full-time printmaker in 1999, Buchanan says that much of her training as a scientist has served her extremely well as an artist, since both disciplines require skill at observing the environment and not only looking, but seeing, what’s going on around you. She is inspired by the coast of Maine, which continually reinvents itself with its “ever-changing ocean and sky” and “seasons that have a grace and character of their own.”
“As an artist, I am fascinated by relationships — my connection to the natural world, my role as a mother, and my own sense of self all find expression in my image,” says Buchanan. “Collagraph printing, with all its intricacy and subtlety, is a fascinating medium to use in the communication of these ideas.”
Claudia Diller is a freelance designer and illustrator working in Portland, Maine, who splits her time between her studio apartment on Munjoy Hill and Maine’s western mountains, where she enjoys “The Almost Farm” on the Carrabassett River. Diller works with acrylics and occasionally watercolor to help depict the places she’s been, and derives her inspiration from time spent camping around the islands off the coast in the summer and skiing through the western mountains in the winter.
Hélène Farrar’s approach to art making is one of experimentation and momentum, using oils, encaustics and watercolors on material such as canvas, panel, paper and found objects. The scale of her paintings ranges from three inches square to five feet square, and in recent years, she even painted a permanent installation in a private home measuring 24 by 40 feet. Farrar has taught and worked in the visual arts for 15 years, and has actively exhibited in commercial, nonprofit, and university galleries in New England, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Italy, and England. A professional art educator, she most recently served on the faculties of the University of Maine and Thomas College, and currently owns and operates her own private art school out of her studio in Manchester, Maine.
After careers in business and education, Anne Walker found a passion for fiber arts, using fabric as her main medium. Moving gradually from a background in traditional quilting and basket making, she now concentrates on art quilts and fabric/mixed media collage. Primarily self-taught, Walker’s work ranges from landscapes of the Maine mountains, lakes, and rugged shore to impressionistic and graphic pieces, all inspired by her surroundings and travels. Each is an original design, utilizing a variety of quilting techniques and styles, non-fabric materials, and embellishments. Walker lives in Rangeley, Maine, with her family, and is a member of Studio Art Quilt Associates, Art Quilts Maine, and Maine Fiberarts.
Other featured artists include Belfast artist Annette Huval, who will bring her amazing, one-of-a-kind felt sculptures to Archipelago. An avid quilter for many years, Annette’s work with animals and dolls is shaped by design, color, and small hand-stitching. From her home studio, and through her business Oliver Rabbit, she develops patterns and designs, creates her own handmade work, and teaches other to sew and enjoy the magic of making.
Archipelago is located at 386 Main Street in Rockland and is open seven days a week; Monday through Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; and Sunday, 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. For questions about Archipelago or the fall gallery show, please contact Archipelago Director Lisa Mossel Vietze at (207) 596-0701.
