The Pemaquid Group of Artists has juried Barbara Vanderbilt of Whitefield and Belva Ann Prycel of Damariscotta, into permanent membership. John Butke, a Boothbay resident and Kimberly Skillin Traina of Edgecomb have been invited to exhibit as the 2019 Seasonal Guest Artists. They will show their work, together with that of 29 other juried members of the group, at Pemaquid Art Gallery at Lighthouse Park beginning Monday, June 10. The prior evening, June 9 from 5 to 6:30 p.m., the artists celebrate the season’s start with a festive public reception. Thirty-three panels/exhibition spaces will be filled with original artworks in oil, pastel, watercolor, gouache, and acrylic as well as marquetry, pottery and turned wooden bowls.

New member artist Barbara Vanderbilt has a professional background in clay and relief sculpture. She has recently begun painting with pastels and is inspired by her love of nature and her passion for shape and texture. Vanderbilt has a degree in Art for the University of Maine at Augusta and has studied with local artist Kathleen Galligan and Albert Handell of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her work can be viewed locally at the Tidemark Gallery in Waldoboro, River Arts and Kefauver Galleries in Damariscotta, the Boothbay Region Art Federation, and the Jonathan Frost Gallery in Rockland. She is a signature member of Pastel Painters of Maine and an Associate signature member of Pastel Society of America.

Artist Belva Ann Prycel, is a landscape painter and art teacher from southern New Jersey who relocated to the Damariscotta area in 2001. Raised near the shores of Delaware Bay and tidal wetlands, she now finds inspiration in the rivers and coastal landscapes and seascapes of Maine

Since moving to Maine she has written and illustrated with her paintings three published books: “Times and Tides,” “Water Tales” and “Passage.  Prycel has exhibited in many mid east coast galleries over the years and has had one-woman shows at the Maine Art Gallery, Saltwater Artists, River Arts and Summer Island Studio. She is a longtime member of the Philadelphia Watercolor Society.

A graphic designer and photographer and owner of Jumpstart Creative, Guest Artist Kimberly Traina started painting with soft pastels in 2011. She loves the intensity of the color and the ability to layer as well as the feel of the medium as she creates a painting with her fingers. Being outdoors and connecting with nature is her “soul food”. When she is not painting “en plein-aire”, she works from photographs in her studio. Traina is recognized locally for her creation and curating of “Art at the Grill”  – on-going exhibits of local artists at the Damariscotta River Grill.

Guest Artist John Butke graduated from Massachusetts College of Art with a BFA in painting and illustration and received an MFA in painting and printmaking from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan and continued his study on a Ford Foundation Grant in the western United States. After service in the Peace Corps in western Samoa, he returned to Worcester, Massachusetts where he taught Visual Arts in the Worcester Public Schools until retirement. Butke and his wife Jill, who is a weaving artist, share a studio in Sawyer’s Island, Boothbay. His work can be viewed locally at the Boothbay Region Art Foundation and River Arts in Damariscotta.

In addition to the new artists, the 2019 exhibiting members of the Pemaquid Group of Artists include: Barbara Applegate, Debra Arter, Bruce Babb, Julie Babb, Stephen Busch, Midge Coleman, Trudi Curtis, William Curtis, Dianne Dolan, Peggy Farrell, Sarah Fisher, Bill Hallett, Claire Hancock, Kay Sawyer Hannah, Kathleen Horst, Hannah Ineson, Will Kefauver, Jan Kilburn, Barbara Klein, Patti Leavitt, Sally Loughridge, Marlene Loznicka, Judy Nixon, Paul Sherman, Cindy Spencer, Liliana Thelander, Bob Vaughan, Steve Viega and Bev Walker.

The gallery is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Indigenous People’s Day on. For more information, please call 207-677-2752 or visit awww.pemaquidartgallery.com.