With bold color and lighting, and rich atmospheric effects, two Pemaquid Gallery artists, Sally Loughridge and Kim Traina, evoke an emotional response to their brilliant Maine landscapes. Traina works predominantly in soft pastels, whereas this season Loughridge is exhibiting paintings in oil. In spite of different backgrounds and mediums, both artists are connected by their passion for the beauty of Maine’s natural world and their success in conveying this passion to others.

Loughridge has been a member of the Gallery almost since moving to Maine in 1999. After a 27-year-long career as a clinical psychologist, she focused on her life-long love of creating art and continued her “rich patchwork” of art workshops and classes. She has worked in many mediums, watercolor, oil, pastel, stained glass, calligraphy, and jewelry, and is author of two self-illustrated children’s books.

Loughridge paints both plein air and in the studio and is especially drawn to islands with their enduring elements. As she states, “what is elemental and simple in elegant and core ways.” She is fascinated by impending change in the natural world such as a coming storm, seasonal changes or sunrise/sunset. She uses dark and light patterns, stark silhouettes but soft edges, strong color and movement through the painting but with weight and solidity of form, as if searching for a deeper essence and meaning in the views. She has shown extensively in the area, most recently beginning June 21 in the Craignair Inn gallery in Spruce Head.

Traina, a two-year Gallery member, has been a self-employed graphic designer and photographer for 30 years. She started painting in pastels in 2011 with a focus on the ocean and sky. The brilliance and freshness of the pastel medium seems entirely appropriate to her renderings of skies, sunsets, sunrises, storms, beaches, roiling water and waves. Her studies of reflection and light are luminous, atmospheric, lyrical and dramatic, full of movement. She draws the viewer into an evanescent world of light and atmosphere, working the pastel often with her fingers, adding and subtracting elements. Traina’s work also can be seen year-round at Georgetown Pottery, and from mid-September to mid-October at the Damariscotta River Grill.

Both artists’ work can be found on www.pemaquidgallery.com and further enjoyed on their websites: www.sallyloughridge.com and www.kimtraina.com. 

The Gallery, located at Lighthouse Park at Pemaquid Point in Bristol, is open daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. until mid-October.

The other 2023 Pemaquid Gallery Artists include: Bobbie Applegate, Debra Arter, Stephen Busch, John Butke, Dianne Dolan, Gwedolyn Evans, Peggy Farrell, Sarah Fisher, Claire Hancock, Kay Sawyer Hannah, Kathleen Horst, Hannah Ineson, Will Kefauver, Jan Kilburn, Barbara Klein, Patti Leavitt, Judy Nixon, Charles Nowell, Alexandra Perry-Weiss, Paul Sherman, Marnie Sinclair, Gary Smith, Cindy Spencer, Val Thomas, Liliana Thelander, Barbara Vanderbilt, Bob Vaughan, Candace Vlcek, Carol Wiley, Sherrie York.