A woman jumps and is captured on the canvas, mid-air, eyes closed, legs in a semi-jeté posture, arms raised skyward. She has reached the “jumping off point.” Comfortable with, and feeling her personal power, she falls, knowing that where she lands is where she was intended to be.

This is her journey. Possibly a shamanic, mystical journey, or perhaps her soul will reveal memories of lives long ended — but not forgotten. The imaginary and mysterious setting of Lynne Seitzer's visual narrative, “ Myth, Memory & Monhegan,” a series of 11 paintings, will linger in your mind's eye long after you leave the exhibition at Studio 53 Fine Art in Boothbay Harbor.

Seitzer's muses — sketched figures from life drawing classes over the years and the magical landscape of Monhegan Island — possess a depth, an energy created through the application of ample amounts of oil paint with a knife, then defining the forms by outlining them in indigo. The texture and surreal quality achieved by these techniques enriches the viewer's exploration of the unfolding tale. The paintings blend the mythical and the archetypal with this familiar 3D (the material, physical, linear) world and the soul.

“Memories of meadows, pathways, Cathedral Woods, pathways; the magical places we came to know as Monhegan (Island), became the setting for many of these stories,” Seitzer said. “Stories that ask more questions than there are answers.”

“Reaching the Jumping Off Point” is the signature piece of the series and Seitzer's favorite.

“I felt so excited when I started these. One thing led to the next idea … it all just came pouring out,” said Seitzer. “She's leaping in the air feeling her own strength, her own power; elevating above the hills, valleys, beach, desert … whatever is below her. Everything is introspective, the energy is distinctly feminine.”

The man and woman, or faun and goddess in the paintings, are based on sketches of models from life drawing classes Seitzer attended over the years. She placed each model sketch into an imagined landscape. A landscape that was “deeply embedded in the artistic psyche (memory), fleshed out into human form but whose reality is imagined (myth), yet inherently substantial.”

Viewing these works, it is evident that the artist gave herself permission to let go, to experiment, to delve deeply into her own psyche and that of her characters.

Beginning with roughing the figures out in oil paint with a knife rather than drawing them realistically, and then outlining them in indigo, ála Henri Matisse, with a brush. The texture and energy this technique creates is most effective!

Storyteller Seitzer titles each painting with story-like names. The male figure/faun painting is entitled, “He lived in the space where dreams were sown.” Looking god-like atop a stone wall, his youth and virility in stark contrast to the somber dreamscape that surrounds him.

In “Listening to the sounds that cannot be seen,” the jumping woman now lies nude on the forest floor. She is a woodland nymph cradled by the moss and grass, her head resting on the earth, its rhythms move through her like the sound of a lullaby. A small pool of water symbolizing her subconscious from which this one primeval memory has escaped while the shadows within it represent memories yet to be awakened. Behind her is a forest, trees both alive and dead surrounded by a fog which has indistinct forms in mauves and lavender within it. Magic and mystery hold her. She is still, but her life force is strong. This is a scene to lose oneself in. Again. And again.

Seitzer's work will be interspersed with paintings by the late Monhegan artist Elena Jahn on the first floor of Studio 53.

“What better companion works could there be for this exhibit than the mythical landscapes of Monhegan? I'm honored to have been able to do a show with Elena Jahn's work.”

Seitzer, and her artist husband John M.T. Seitzer, met Jahn in 1999 at her studio on the island.

“I loved her work,” Seitzer said. “Her warmth infused every piece of artwork she created.”

Jahn's large, vibrant paintings of Monhegan will command your attention. They are rich in color — and emotion. Real and mystical — like the island itself.

This exhibition of Jahn's work has been made possible by her daughter, Lisa Jahn Clough, who will be at the opening reception for the show on Friday, July 1 from 5-8 p.m.

Visit Studio 53 Fine Art at 53 Townsend Avenue over the next three weeks and drink in “Myth, Memory & Monhegan” — a stirring, sensual, soulful journey that should be taken.