“Oyster Farmers’ Commute,” by Sarah Fisher (Photo courtesy Bristol Area Library)
Artwork by Damariscotta artist Sarah L. Fisher can be viewed throughout the month of May at the Bristol Area Library.
In 2012, Fisher retired to Damariscotta from the Washington D.C. area where she had been a painting conservator at the National Gallery of Art for 32 years and head of the painting conservation department there for the last 20 years.
She had vacationed with relatives in the Pemaquid Peninsula area since the 1970s.
Retirement allowed her to focus on her own art after years of fitting in quick sketching and painting during holidays from and travels for her work. Her career brought her familiarity with the great art of many countries and since retirement she has lectured on painting conservation for the Farnsworth Museum and other local organizations.
She originally painted only in watercolor, loving its unexpected effects and its lyrical, playful potential. In the last five years she has also returned to painting in oil and has enjoyed the re-working and abstraction it has allowed her. She paints the beauties of the coastal Maine landscape and of local scenes.
More recently Fisher has added the exploration of abstracting shapes of local architecture, boats, and the natural world to her painting. She loves the shapes of buildings and boats and works to translate their volumes to the two-dimensional plane. During the COVID period, she developed a “wonky,” crooked depiction of local scenes which she continues to occasionally play with.
Fisher is a member of the Pemaquid Gallery of Artists at Pemaquid Point. Since 2013, she has exhibited her paintings throughout Lincoln County in group and solo shows. She is presently secretary on the board of the Maine Art Gallery in Wiscasset.
The Bristol Area Library is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; 2-5 p.m. Thursday; and 10 a.m. to noon Saturday. For more information go to bal.tidewater.net, or call 677-2115. The Bristol Area Library is located at the corner of Route 130 and Old County Road.
