“Illumination,” by Jean Kigel.
This August, Waldoboro artist Jean Kigel celebrates two decades of exhibiting paintings of Maine and the Far East. These annual exhibitions began in Tenants Harbor, transitioned to Damariscotta, and ultimately came to Waldoboro. This year’s event showcases Kigel’s newest paintings on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, Aug. 10, 11, and 12 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day.
On Friday, Aug. 10, the public is invited to a reception from 5-7 p.m. The gallery is located at 176 Winslow Mills Road/Route 32, Waldoboro. In honor of this 20th season, David Sieracki, a master cellist from Edgecomb, will perform background music.
Kigel’s signature images combine her twin passions for flowers and for water. “Illumination,” a foggy scene from Back Cove on Muscongus Bay, depicts her passion for water. Kigel painted this oil in her new style, which she calls “geometric realism.” Here, angular shafts of morning light play around a moored sailboat, its departure watched by a hunched heron. Kigel’s other geometric realism paintings include seascapes, landscapes, and attic windows. Viewers will recognize scenes from New Harbor, Owls Head, and Acadia National Park, as well as from the fields of Thorndike, and quaint homes from Midcoast Maine.
Kigel’s other passion, flowers, is represented by “Van Gogh Blues,” a full-sheet watercolor of irises, in subtle shades of violet and green. Other house plants and perennials in her floral series include waxy, velvety hoya blossoms, misty African violets, and a meandering stream of water lilies. “The forms and creativity of nature give me comfort,” said Kigel. “A thing of beauty is a joy forever.”
In addition this year, viewers will discover a series of small studio, still-lifes of vintage objects, including a 1950’s electric fan, a hair dryer, and salt shakers. With Asian brush and with oils, Kigel brings a sense of exotica to familiar things.
An award-winning member of the Sumi-e Society of America and the Union of Maine Visual Artists, Kigel shows her work in galleries in Maine, Vermont, and Massachusetts. For more information, preview the exhibit at jeankigel.com or call 975-3262.
