The Lincoln Home hosts special guest artist Polly Steadman, Friday, July 15, 4 to 7 p.m. during the Twin Villages ARTWALK. Polly will show a retrospective of work she has created since coming to Maine 40 years ago. 

From Damariscotta, Polly arrived at her unique expression in oil paintings after years of painstakingly trying to paint landscapes and seascapes with realism in mind. Over 20 years ago she learned the wet-on-wet technique, which appealed to her because an entire oil painting was completed in one session, instead of the months it used to take to finish one canvas. More importantly, she finds the process itself exciting and liberating – and each time an exploration into the unknown.

Largely self-taught, Polly has been painting in oils since high school. When she moved to Maine from New Hampshire in 1972 her painting background was haphazard and unfocused — a quickly grabbed pleasure at best. After years of experimenting, blending the oil colors for form and feeling, unplanned images and themes often emerge on the canvas, which has changed Polly’s pastime from a challenge to a passion.

Polly says, “I look forward to grabbing a canvas and just doing it.  The experience is the pleasure, and if I complete a frameable piece, so much the better: it can go out into the world and perhaps lead someone else to experiment with just doing.”

Last year she was commissioned to do a moon painting, and since then she has become moonstruck, as you will see in the Lincoln Home exhibit.

Among the Maine artists she credits with her artistic growth and direction are Lou Page, formerly of Mouse Island, Fred Kellogg of Thomaston, and Jean Harris of Damariscotta.  Polly’s work has been included in many area gallery exhibitions, solo shows in Maine and NH galleries as well as installations in health practice offices, restaurants, retirement homes and private residences.

Polly has offered to donate twenty five percent of the sale of her work to Lincoln Home Resident Financial Assistance Fund. The Lincoln Home, a non-profit, takes no state monies of any kind but  endeavors to provide assistance to those who need help.

Look for the yellow flag at The Lincoln Home, 22 River Road, Newcastle, stop 1 on the ARTWALK map. There is plenty of parking at The Lincoln Home.

For more information about the artists exhibiting at The Lincoln Home or the ARTWALK, please contact Kim Skillin Traina, Jumpstart Creative, 882-9870.