Art Auction Catalogue
and
Program
AUGUST 20, 2015
The Lodge at Boom Cove
Days Ferry, Woolwich
OUR BUSINESS SPONSORS AND PATRONS
Our Hosts
Event Patrons
Jackson and Susan Parker
Marcia and Steve August
Media Sponsor
Susan Bateson and Steve Fuller
Maine Home and Design Magazine
Business Sponsors
Jorgensen Landscaping
Sharon Drake Realty
Woodex
Business Supporters
Associated Appraisers
Bisson Realty
Now You’re Cooking
Weiss & Burch
Stephen Dewick
Carole and Dennis Dunbar
Cindy and Mike Fahay
Kathy and Bob Gravino
Rebecca Halbrook
Nancy and Bill Milam
Annie Miller
Joyce Pye
Mary Earl & Bill Rogers
Nancy Shaul and E. Davies Allan
Skip and Lucy Stinson
In-Kind Business Friends
Amy and Fred Wesson
Amy Kerr Instructional Design
Lisa Reece and Stephen Williams
Henry & Marty’s
Loren and JB Wright
Just Framing
Cynthia Zadai and Scott Johnson
Solo Bistro
Current as of printing date.
WELCOME FRIENDS
As someone who was born and raised in Maine, I have seen many beautiful
parts of our state. However, I have never experienced anything quite like the
Kennebec Estuary. The abundance of natural habitats and intricate waterways
that come together right here at the Chopps is truly an inspiration. Whether you
are a hiker, a boater, a birder, or an artist, there is something about the natural
beauty of this region that inspires us all to appreciate the natural wonder that
surrounds us.
Thanks to our gracious hosts, Jackson and Susan Parker, we are able to enjoy
some of the best views of the estuary tonight while we marvel at our amazing
community. I am so thrilled that this evening’s event has catalyzed new
relationships between KELT and the generous artists who have supported us
in this adventure. I am especially grateful to Susan Bateson, Mike Fear, Loren
Wright, and Cindy Fahay for their endless energy in planning and executing this
event. I don’t know about you, but I will leave tonight feeling truly inspired.
Thank you all for your support of the Kennebec Estuary Land Trust.
EVENT PROGRAM
5:30PM
Happy Hour
Enjoy the food, drinks, and view; meet the artists
and mingle with fellow guests
6:30PM
Welcome Remarks
Carrie Kinne, Executive Director, KELT
Susan Bateson, KELT Member & Event Chairperson
6:40PM
Nature & Art
Jack Gable, Artist
6:45PM
Art Auction
Mike Fear, KELT Member, Auctioneer, and Proprietor
of Now You’re Cooking
7:30PM
Closing Remarks and Check Out
AUCTION ITEM #1
REFLECTIONS ON
THE BAY
Evelyn Dunphy
Media: Transparent watercolor on hand-made paper,
framed in antique silver
Size:
Unframed 16” x 20”; framed 22” x 27½”
Suggested Gallery Price: $1,500
Evelyn and her husband, Hugh, live in West Bath – where Evelyn’s studio
and teaching space is only a few steps from the colorful flower gardens
outside their back door. Evelyn was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia; she and
Hugh moved to Maine in 1989. While considering herself an artist from
childhood, Evelyn took her first art lessons in Bath in 1994. Since then, she
has studied at the Art Students League in New York, the University of Maine
at Augusta, and at the Scotttsdale Artists School – resigning from her job
with a biomedical research firm to become a full-time artist in 2000.
Evelyn’s paintings have been juried into many national and international
exhibitions, where they have received numerous awards. She is a Signature
Member of the New England Watercolor Society and a new juried member
of the National Association of Women Artists. Her work is in many private
collections and has been included in numerous publications. She teaches in
her studio and internationally in Ireland, Italy, Spain, France and Cuba. Most
important to Evelyn are the works that she continues to
create as part of her passion for preserving wilderness
areas of Maine. Evelyn was recognized by the Trust for
Public Lands for her contribution to raising funds to
purchase and preserve Katahdin Lake.
www.evelyndunphy.com
page 1
AUCTION ITEM #2
LATE MARCH,
GEORGETOWN
Keith Oehmig
Media: Watercolor, framed in antique gold
Size:
Unframed 8” x 10”; framed 15½” x 18”
Suggested Gallery Price: $950
Keith and his wife, Cordelia, make their home in Brunswick. Originally from
Chattanooga, Tennessee, Keith graduated from Principia College in Elsah,
Illinois, and then moved to Maine to begin his career as a professional artist
and gallery director. Keith has owned and run Wiscasset Bay Gallery, which
originated at 92 Front Street in Bath (now KELT’s home!), since he was 21
years old. In between painting and running the gallery, Keith also earned his
MFA from Pratt Institute.
While Keith primarily captures views of the spectacular Maine coastline, he
regularly departs on painting trips to Florida and abroad. In all of his works,
Keith melds an impressionistic style with a rich and vibrant palette. Keith’s
paintings have won numerous awards and he has shown his work in solo
and group exhibitions at locales including the Bates College Museum of Art
in Lewiston, Maine; the Hunter Museum of Art; the Portland Museum of Art
in Portland, Maine; the Wood Museum and Library in Chicago, Illinois; Albany
Fine Arts in Albany, New York; Art Boston, in Boston, Massachusetts; the Bay
View Gallery in Camden, Maine; Clarke Galleries in Palm
Beach, Florida; J. Todd Galleries in Wellesley, Massachusetts; and the Maine State House in Augusta, Maine.
www.wiscassetbaygallery.com
page 2
AUCTION ITEM #3
THE GREEN
LOBSTER BOAT
Peter G. Cook
Media: Oil on board, framed in antique silver
Size:
Unframed 12” x 20”; framed 25½” x 24”
Suggested Gallery Price: $4,000
Peter and his wife, Joan – daughter of the painter John Folinsbee, with whom
Peter studied and painted, summered at Murphy’s Corner in Woolwich and
made their home in New Jersey. A portrait and landscape painter, Peter
began the study of painting in 1936, earned a degree in architecture from
Princeton University in 1937, and won a Pulitzer Traveling Scholarship in
1939. He studied painting in New Hope, Pennsylvania, and at the National
Academy of Design in New York City and the Art Students League. Peter
combined running a family farm with painting until 1946, when he started
to receive enough portrait commissions that painting began to subsidize his
farming.
Many of the commissions he received during his long career were for
portraits from universities as well as corporations and the U.S. Supreme
Court. He also painted landscapes in Maine and Europe as well as near his
New Jersey home. His paintings are in the collections of Harvard and
Princeton Universities, the Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian
Institution, and the United States Navy. He was elected
to the National Academy of Design in 1966. Peter died
at age 77 in 1992.
The painting of Peter G. Cook
to the right was painted by his
father-in-law, John F. Folinsbee
page 3
AUCTION ITEM #4
WOODS AT
THORNE HEAD
Stuart Ross
Media: Oil on linen, framed in antique gold
Size:
Unframed 20” x 20”; framed 23” x 25”
Suggested Gallery Price: $400
Stuart and his wife, Nan, live in Bath and have been Maine residents for
over 45 years. Stuart, who studied painting and drawing at the University of
Michigan – earning both his BS and MS from UMich, is a landscape painter
who has exhibited his work in midcoast Maine for many years. He has taught
painting at various colleges including Colby College in Waterville and Midcoast Senior College in Bath. Stuart’s work has been featured in numerous
one-artist exhibitions, invitational exhibitions and group exhibitions throughout the state of Maine. His work is included in the permanent collection at
Colby College Museum of Art, as well as the corporate collections of Maine
Savings Bank, Unum Corporation, Casco Bank, People’s Heritage Bank, and
Thornton Oaks.
Stuart first donated this painting to the Lower Kennebec Regional Land
Trust (one of the predecessor land trusts that came together to form KELT)
when money was being raised through private and business donations to
acquire the property now known as Thorne Head Preserve. Stuart is honored
that his painting is, once again, being offered to support KELT’s ongoing
conservation work.
Email: [email protected]
page 4
AUCTION ITEM #5
ROCK FLOWERS
Maret Hensick
Media: Mixed Media on half-rag and Italian hand-made papers,
framed in gold
Size:
Unframed 28” x 36”; framed 32” x 50”
Suggested Gallery Price: $3,200
Maret and her husband, Tom Paiement, also an artist, live in a “small, selfbuilt house on the edge of the woods” in Woolwich. In this mixed media
composition, Maret depicts the flowers that grow along the rock ledges of
the Kennebec at Days Ferry in Woolwich.
Maret was raised in Europe from the age of 9, returning to the United States
for college, and graduating from the University of Pennsylvania with a
Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. After college, she worked in Germany for two
years as a graphic artist before returning to the U.S. She lived in Montana,
Michigan, New York City and Minneapolis before settling in Maine with Tom.
In the late 1980’s, Maret was hand painting T-shirts and selling them at
craft fairs. Maret started showing the designs to perspective companies; her
first license was with L.L. Bean. Since then, she has been licensing designs
to companies worldwide for paper, tabletop and giftware
products. For the past few years, Maret has stepped back
from the commercial side of her work to concentrate on her
own paintings – mostly landscapes and florals – working in
various media: oil pastels, watercolor, and mixed media.
www.marethensickstudio.com
page 5
AUCTION ITEM #6
OLD WEIR,
KENNEBEC
John Fulton Folinsbee
Media: Oil on Masonite, framed in antique gold; painted in 1960s
Size:
Unframed 20” x 30”; framed 25” x 35”
Suggested Gallery Price: $10,000
John was born in Buffalo, New York, in 1892. He displayed an early interest
in art and, at the age of 9, attended classes at the Buffalo Art Students’
League. The artist married Ruth Baldwin in 1914, and two years later they
moved to New Hope, Pennsylvania. John joined the group of artists now
generally known as the New Hope School of landscape painting. John only
painted in the impressionist style of the New Hope School for a short period.
By the late-1920s, John’s landscapes demonstrate an exploration of his
subjects’ structure and contour. The gem-like colors and bright light that
characterized his early work were replaced by dramatic contrasts in light and
dark, and with color that was deeper and more intense.
Beginning in the mid-1930s, John and his family spent
their summers in Maine, and in 1949 they bought
an old farmhouse at Murphy’s Corner in Woolwich. It
seems that Maine captured the imagination of his later
years, and many of his prize-winning works evoke the
weathered towns and harsh summer storms along the
Maine coast. John is said to have thought of himself as
a Realist, subscribing to no
Self-Portrait, 1919
single style of art; rather, he
by John F. Folinsbee
filtered the broad array of
influences, both traditional and contemporary, into a
method of painting that was uniquely his own.
www.johnfolinsbee.org
page 6
AUCTION ITEM #7
VIEW FROM BONYUN
PRESERVE
Claudette Gamache
Media: Pastel, framed in antique gold
Size:
Unframed 18” x 24”; framed 25” x 30½”
Suggested Gallery Price: $2,500
Claudette and her husband, Paul, reside in Bath and at Popham Beach.
Although Claudette pursued a career as a registered nurse, her passion
always remained in the arts. Seeking to blend the two, Claudette – later in
life – earned her BFA from the University of Hartford and an MA from Lesley
University in Expressive Arts Therapies and Holistic Studies. As a registered
art therapist, Claudette spent many years helping people decrease stress,
reduce pain and stay well through the creative arts. Claudette believes that
nature is the great healer and she wants her paintings to communicate this
experience.
Claudette is a Signature member of the Pastel Society of America, Pastel
Painters of Maine, the Ct. Pastel Society and a Master Circle member of the
International Association of Pastel Societies. She is a contributor to “100
Ways to Paint Landscapes” with International Artist Publishing. She has
presented to many groups in the art and health fields around the world, and
is in Who’s Who of American Women and American Art. Her paintings have
been chosen for many juried shows throughout the United
States. Over 500 paintings hang in private and corporate
collections and she has won over 60 awards. Claudette
teaches workshops in Maine and is a mentor for the
MFA program at Heartwood College of Art in Kennebunk,
Maine.
www.claudettegamache.com
page 7
AUCTION ITEM #8
SPRING AT NEQUASSET
John (Jack) Gable
Media: Acrylic on canvas, framed in antique silver
Size:
Unframed 24” x 30”; framed 30½” x 37½”
Suggested Gallery Price: $12,000
Jack’s painting, which was executed specifically for KELT and sparked the
idea for this 2015 Art of the Estuary event, depicts the new fish ladder at
Nequasset.
Jack and his wife, Bobbi, live in a 200 year-old farmhouse in Woolwich,
overlooking the coast of Maine. Born in Frankfort, Kentucky in 1944, he
graduated from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, and
began his career as an automobile designer at GM. Jack eventually moved to
Maine to pursue a career as an artist.
Jack, a Contemporary Realist painter and muralist, is known for his vivid use
of color, light and detail as well as for his extraordinary breadth of subject
matter. His subjects range from sailing and boating to the Boston Classical
Orchestra to the History of Duck Hunting on the Chesapeake. Listed in Who’s
Who in American Art, Jack’s murals and paintings can be found in museums,
universities, and corporations, as well as private collections throughout the
country. He has done portrait work for the Smithsonian Institution, historic
murals for the Willard Intercontinental Hotel, and a portrait of U.S. Senator
William Hathaway, which hangs in Maine’s Capitol Rotunda. Jack has had many one-man shows in leading art
galleries in New York City and around New England. Jack
has received awards from the National Academy of Design
and the American Watercolor Society.
www.johngablefineart.com
page 8
CLOSING NOTES
Several of the artists who have contributed works to this auction have agreed
to donate 30% of the proceeds from the sale of another of their works to
attendees if the sale is arranged directly with the artist within a specified time
period. Please be in touch with the artist if you are interested.
If you were not the winning bid, or chose not to bid on a piece of art, we invite
you to support KELT’s efforts to conserve, preserve and steward the land.
Our checkout team will be happy to accept checks or credit cards for 2015
Art of the Estuary purchases and donations. Sets of notecards depicting
the eight paintings auctioned today will be available for sale in KELT’s Office
beginning next week.
Thank you for your generous support of
the Kennebec Estuary Land Trust!
Conserve, restore and instill appreciation of the land and water resources of
the Kennebec Estuary to benefit today’s communities and future generations.
Mailing: P.O. Box 1128, Office: 92 Front Street, Bath Maine 04530
www.kennebecestuary.com
(207) 442-8400