Will Kefauver with one of his wave paintings. (Christine LaPado-Breglia photo)
Lincoln County represents: Good old Facebook! That’s how I found out about the brand-new issue of the ArtMaine 2020 Annual Guide featuring Damariscotta painter and gallery owner Will Kefauver as one of 88 of Maine’s outstanding artists. Jurors included Farnsworth Art Museum curator Jane Bianco, Rockport photographer and gallery owner Peter Ralston, and arts advocate Marcia Minter, who co-founded the Portland-based Indigo Arts Alliance.
I talked with Kefauver after reading his Facebook post, and he gave me a copy of the magazine, in which I discovered that several other fabulous artists in Lincoln County have been honored as well.
Damariscotta painter William A. Curtis, who has shown work at Kefauver’s gallery, Kefauver Studio & Gallery, weighs in with his fine oil painting called “Pemaquid Point Storm.” Curtis and Kefauver are also involved with Pemaquid Art Gallery at Lighthouse Park in New Harbor, as part of the Pemaquid Group of Artists showing work there.
“Roiling II,” by Will Kefauver, is featured in ArtMaine’s 2020 Annual Guide showcasing 88 of Maine’s outstanding visual artists. (Image courtesy Will Kefauver)
Wonderful Walpole painter Susan Bartlett Rice is also recognized in the new ArtMaine publication, as are Waldoboro painter Anne Heywood, Boothbay Harbor painter Andre Benoit, East Boothbay painter Brad Betts, and the formidable Newcastle painter Jane Dahmen, with her striking acrylic painting “Yellow Sky Birches.”
“It’s nice to get recognition outside the Twin Villages,” Kefauver told me, noting that the magazine is available to subscribers as well as on the newsstand.
He was excited that two artists that have shown work at his gallery – Curtis and Scarborough painter Tricia Granzier – were included in the magazine’s lineup of stellar artists.
“Bill and I were juried into the Pemaquid Group of Artists in the same year,” Kefauver said, referring to Curtis. “Whenever I run into him painting plein air, he’s painting these wonderful wave pieces – you know, crashing surf, like the one in the magazine. He’s developed a painterly style that’s different than mine. Mine tends to be more ‘buttoned up.’”
“Pemaquid Point Storm,” an oil painting by Damariscotta artist William A. Curtis, is featured in the brand-new ArtMaine 2020 Annual Guide. (Image courtesy Willam A. Curtis)
As for Granzier, Kefauver said, “When I first met Tricia, we were doing the ‘Rock ’n’ Wave’ show (at Kefauver Studio & Gallery), and she was doing these wonderful paintings of beach stones, sort of up close, so they’re almost abstract but you still know what they are, which is the kind of thing that appeals to me.”
For his part, Curtis told me (in an email): “I must say that I was very pleased and honored to be chosen as one of the artists featured in the ArtMaine 2020 Annual Guide along with Will Kefauver, especially when you consider the credentials of the members of the jury. I must thank my daughter-in-law, Line, for insisting that I submit ‘Pemaquid Point Storm,’ as it is one of her favorite pieces. I consider myself to be very lucky to be living in this part of the world surrounded by all this beauty and to be able to try to capture it on canvas.”
“Green Urchin,” an acrylic painting on canvas by Scarborough painter Tricia Granzier, is featured in the ArtMaine 2020 Annual Guide. (Image courtesy Tricia Granzier)
Granzier, who describes herself as an “emerging artist,” had this to say: “It’s a thrill and a tremendous honor to have been selected to appear in ArtMaine’s 2020 Annual Guide. It is recognition and validation on another level, as it represents a vote of confidence in my work and my potential by a body of professional, knowledgeable, and respected individuals in the art world. It means the world to me and it intensifies the drive to push myself harder to improve and evolve.”
She also offered kind words for Kefauver: “As for Will Kefauver, he is a talented artist who exemplifies and encourages that sense of art community and active support of others. He opens his own gallery to include the work of guest artists through regular juried shows he produces. Each show has a unique and captivating theme. There’s something for everyone. It’s really a wonderful thing he does for artists, collectors, and the community.”
The ArtMaine 2020 Annual Guide is available in Lincoln County at Sherman’s Maine Coast Book Shop, 158 Main St., Damariscotta, and Sherman’s Books & Stationery, 5 Commercial St., Boothbay Harbor.
(Christine LaPado-Breglia is an award-winning journalist who has written about the arts in both California and Maine. Email her at clbreglia@lcnme.com or write her a letter in care of The Lincoln County News, P.O. Box 36, Damariscotta, ME 04543.)
