New artists showing their work at the Pemaquid Art Gallery in Bristol include Belva Ann Prycel of Damariscotta and Kimberly Skillin Traina of Edgecomb. Although they paint in different mediums, these artists search for the hidden quality in landscape and seek to “see beyond the seen,” to capture “the essence of a moment in time.” Both Prycel and Traina offer their work to inspire others to respond to the beauty of the natural world in coastal Maine.

New member Prycel has been practicing her art since childhood, even “making extra money doing charcoal portraits of classmates in high school.” Her interest in art continued in college, with a degree in art education from Rowan University. Since then she has exhibited widely and taught art as well. From her early years in southern New Jersey she has been inspired by the ocean and water in general. She is also the author and illustrator of three books, all memoirs of the northeastern coast she has known.

This year at Pemaquid Gallery, a visitor can expect to see more of her landscapes, featuring dramatic water and sky images, painted in oil. She is currently interested in “commonplace landscapes which have a hidden beauty as they change in the light.”  Two of the “commonplaces” she is excited by are the marshland and the tall pines around Hannaford Market in Damariscotta.

She has shown her award-winning work extensively in New Jersey, and was featured in a PBS video of four painters living in her area. Since moving to Maine in 2001 she has shown at the Maine Art Gallery, Saltwater Artists, River Arts and Summer Island Studio.

Guest Artist Kimberly Traina has been a graphic designer and photographer as well as an artist working in soft pastels since 2011. She is known locally for creating and curating “Art at the Grill,” an ongoing exhibit of local art at the Damariscotta River Grill. Her paintings reveal her interest in ocean, sky, and coastal islands as they change with the light, particularly sunsets.

Traina calls painting her “soul food,” especially when she is out in nature, responding to the moment in time, the light, the sense of spirituality behind the scenery. Although she also paints in her studio from her own photographs, she feels “Art, like life, is a work in progress,” each piece leading to the next, “building intuition and opening to trust.” She feels each creative work has a story to tell, and she is alert to that as she works on each piece over time. Traina states that painting keeps her “in the moment,” and reminds her that she has “a choice in how I view the world around me.”

This summer her work will be featured at the Maine General Medical Center in Augusta, at the River Grill, this fall at Newcastle Realty, and on-going at Georgetown Pottery in Woolwich. Paintings and photographs may also be viewed at kimtraina.com.

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, Belva Ann Prycel, Paul Sherman, Cindy Spencer, Liliana Thelander, Barbara Vanderbilt, Bob Vaughan, Steve Viega and Bev Walker, and guest artists, Kimberly Traina and John Butke.

The gallery is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Columbus Day. For more information, please call 207-677-2752 or visit www.pemaquidartgallery.com.