Sally Giddings Smith has taken her art halfway around the world from Maine to the Big Sur in California to Paris and back to East Boothbay. She currently shows her work from the Fortunate Chance Gallery on Ocean Point Road. She is president of the Boothbay Region Art Foundation.

Smith was born in Farmington. Her childhood was spent in Orono.

"I used to paint while my mother was cooking," said Smith.

An early inspiration came from Vincent Hartgen, head of the art department at the University of Maine.

"He had an outdoor art exhibit in the woods. He tried to capture the light as it came through the trees,"  said Smith, who remembers visiting the exhibition in the summer.

"It was an art party in the woods. I loved it," Smith said.

Smith attended Wellesley College originally wanting to become an architect. She reveled in an introductory art course, which combined art history with studio work.

"You could try out any art form. It changed my life,” she said.

She was taken on as one of two apprentices for printmaker Sigmund Abeles.

"I was one of two people to paint for a semester and get credit for it,” she said.

She obtained a master’s in education degree from Boston University. Having moved to Vermont, she and her husband, Peter Smith, designed houses in Middlesex near Montpelier.

When her husband was elected to Congress in 1988, the couple moved to Washington, D.C. where Sally took courses at the Smithsonian.

“It was a great time to be in Washington,” she said.

After one term, Smith lost his seat to Bernie Sanders and, in 1994, was offered the presidency of the new campus of California State University at the former Fort Ord army base on Monterey Bay.

Sally became part of the planning department that transformed the army facility into art studios from former army tank storage buildings and an actors’ performance space from the movie theater previously used by the soldiers.

She was also instrumental in rescuing murals commissioned while the base was active. She became a member of the Carmel Art Association.

“I started painting again,” said Smith.

In 2006, after Peter Smith’s 10 years as president of the college, the couple left for Paris where Peter took on a position with UNESCO. Sally attended art classes and enjoyed an apartment which had a view of the Eiffel Tower.

“I did a lot of drawing and painting,” she said.

When her marriage ended, she returned to Monterey. She illustrated a book of poetry, “Dancing on the Brink of the World,” with pen and ink drawings inspired by Point Lobos.

“My strength is in drawing. I love the textures that I can achieve,” she said.

In 2009 she returned to her home state of Maine having taken over the former dairy farm dubbed Fortunate Chance on Ocean Point Road. She built her studio on the location of the derelict barn.

She said the return to Maine was a natural progression since she had several cousins living in the area and since it was natural spot for her second great passion aside from her art, sailing.

Currently, she is working on drawings of the seaside, mainly in black-and-white but spotted with red in one or more locations on the paper. The walls are covered with her portraits of friends.

She is also working on a commission of 10, 24-inch by 30-inch panels for the 250th anniversary of the first pastor to come to ‘Townsend” in 1776. The work will be mounted at Congregational Church in Boothbay Harbor.

Smith is part of the First Friday Arts Tour, which resumes in June. The Fortunate Chance Gallery at 155 Ocean Point Road in East Boothbay is open by appointment. For more information, call 633-2710 or visit her webpage: Sally Smith art and design.