Debra Woodward

Dine

We dine out not because we are necessarily hungry for food. We are hungry for the experience. Usually this means sharing the experience with others.  Since we are not cooking, serving, or cleaning up, we can focus on our tablemates.  Dining alone can also be a rewarding and meditative experience though, not having to engage in anything but enjoying every bite.

Here you will see Seacoast NH and one from the legendary Taos Diner which I was sad to hear closed last year. I have special memories from all of these places.  I gravitate toward making art with stories, like the Dad having lunch with his daughters at one of my favorite cafés in Kittery and another in Paris where I was watching from the street and it appeared that even though this fellow had apparently been stood up, he moved to a table and allowed the waiter serve him his meal alone. 

During lockdown, not being able to meet friends for a meal out was one of the greatest longings for a lot of us.   It was especially devastating for the restaurants and their workers, which makes it even more satisfying to see them come back from this and to see even more eateries open in this town.  So, get out there and support them!

Gwen Morgan

In creating a body of works for this exhibit I struggled over finding a theme, but my subjects are varied. I hope that the joy I find in creating shines through in these pieces and those who view them find joy.

My favorite medium is watercolor. The wonderful colors, the way the paint and water move on the paper and the joy of negative painting bring life to delicate flowers, rusty old vehicles, special locations and whimsical ideas. Recently I have found a new enjoyment and challenge in creating collages. I never know the direction a piece might take. I usually start with pieces from my gelli prints and arrange them into colorful pieces of art.

I began my studies in art with Elna Delson in Durham followed by a few classes at Plymouth State College and later with Elinor Vaughan, Doris Rice, Jan Kilburn and Danielle Genovese. I have painted with Doris Rice at local venues such as Strawbery Banke as well as Monhegan Island, Provence and Brittan in France, Tuscany in Italy and Ireland and Spain. My paintings hang in collection in New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, New York Pennsylvania and Texas.

I am currently retired and am enjoying newfound time to continue to create.

RSBense
Isolation and Inspiration

These hauntingly familiar, otherworldly pieces were born out of the isolation experienced from the recent pandemic. The stay-at-home guidelines gave me lots of time to create. While I was cleaning and organizing my studio, I stumbled across some strangely sized ultra-high quality watercolor paper. In keeping with my New England roots, I just had to find a way to use it. Thus, this series of long and skinny landscapes was born. 

As usual, I am engaged in the process and not really doing any deep thinking. I am just playing around. I taped off a section of the paper for the “real” art and used the sides to test my colors. I was being particular about the testing, making deliberate areas of color. I was taking a class with Doris Rice, and she saw it and said, “Those look like remarques.” I quipped “What is a remarque?” It turns out that artists will sometimes paint in the margins of the print, thereby creating a remarque. “Cool,” I thought, and I kept doing my color studies on the sides of the pieces.  I then took the body of work to the framer, and I have to thank Rob at The Gilded Edge Frame Shop for telling me to keep these remarques in the framed piece. I am sure I would have covered them up! 

Judy Arnold
For Granted

You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. So Joni Mitchell told us, and as I age, those words ring even truer. Change is constant and inevitable. But what once progressed at a sluggish creep, now assaults us at an epic pace. The cost and availability of goods. The state of our union. Restaurant survival. Ease of travel. Sustainability of our planet. Shifting politics. The past few years have raised the curtain on so much that I once took for granted. It makes my head spin.

When a building and business that I loved and depended on was suddenly lost to fire, personal change was thrust upon me, leading to a new appreciation of the every day places in my world. I began to look at everything around me with fresh eyes, and questioned my assumptions that familiar sights would be everlasting. They won’t.

Basements of some Strawbery Banke Museum buildings are sustaining water damage from the rising sea and crumbling. Almost thirty 80-year old trees in a Portsmouth neighborhood are being removed to install new sidewalks. Large residential developments are rising like mushrooms all over Southern New Hampshire.

Each day I pass by pastoral scenes, antique barns, quirky shops and centuries old homes. I practice appreciation of those sights which bring me joy — and I take nothing for granted.

Judy Arnold is a proud lifelong NH resident and UNH graduate. Retired from an engineering career, she now pursues buying and selling antiques. Her photography journey began with some blurry B&W Instamatic snapshots in the 1960s.

During the 2020 Lockdown, Judy found the time and inspiration to begin more serious study and practice of photography. She enjoys capturing New England scenes, details of the nautical lifestyle and new takes on the mundane.

Combining her passions for antiques and photography has led to a growing collection of vintage camera lenses. Her favorite is a 1930s Russian collapsible Fed 50mm lens with a red star on the lens cap. The timeless images from Polaroid-style film are a growing area of interest.  One of Judy’s images can be found in the Portsmouth 400th Anniversary 2023 calendar.

Skip Berrien
Mainely Maine

My approach to painting continually evolves and is often experimental. Here I present essentially two bodies of work…one largely blue and crisp while the other is dominated by the red underpainting using a softer brush. Each evokes a different atmosphere…at least for me and maybe for you as well.

About 20 years ago while out on Monhegan, I contemplated painting as I approached retirement from medicine. I have never regretted that inspiration which has permitted me to experiment with color, composition, texture and modes of expression.

These particular paintings reflect our summers in Downeast Maine where my wife and I enjoy the vigor and solitude of the coast as well as the character of the region. The adventure with paint continues as I explore the “still lives” of nature and find expression for the spaces we pass through and inhabit.

Kathy Statires
Fresh of the Boat: Painting Along the New England Coast

After retiring from teaching art for many years, I had the desire to focus on my own artwork. Since I enjoy the outdoors, painting as a plein air artist made sense. I’ve been painting outdoors for the past six years.

My husband always had a boat at the ocean, so I’ve been in love with painting from his boat. Then, of course, looking at other subjects close to the ocean. Most of my paintings have water in some part of my works of art.

I paint with oils but also enjoy working with pastels and watercolors. When I’m outside, planning my composition, I usually start with some thumbnail sketches before drawing on my canvas. Then I visualize and paint an underpainting showing the different values. Adding color is my last step, and if I don’t have time to finish it, I’ll take notes on mixing my colors for completion. Most often I finish my paintings in my home studio.