“Nightfall (Return to Kittery Point),” by Susan Bartlett Rice, hangs in her current show at the Bristol Area Library, running through Wednesday, Feb. 28. (Christine LaPado-Breglia photo)
Art of the square: “I can’t believe it’s been a whole year since we first met at my art display at the Bristol Area Library,” Walpole artist Susan Bartlett Rice told me in a recent email. Indeed, a year has gone by since Rice’s last Bristol exhibit, and now she has a new exhibit at the same library, which runs through the end of February.
Susan Bartlett Rice’s painting “Blueberry Barren 1” hangs above her charming painting of a mail-truck-turned-food-truck. (Christine LaPado-Breglia photo)
Being a devoted SBR fan, I scooted on down to the library to check it out.
Rice’s exhibit is a collection of colorful square paintings in two sizes – all of them a delight to look at.
Square paintings, I have been told, are trickier to pull off than those on rectangular canvases, as traditional composition “rules” don’t necessarily apply. Needless to say, Rice has mastered the square form.
From farm landscapes to more traditional landscapes to close-ups of vegetables to more quirky subject matter, like a “portrait” of a mail-truck-turned-food-truck, Rice’s unmistakable style brings wonderful, playful life to everything she depicts.
Do go and see her work before it comes down. The Bristol Area Library is located at 619 Old County Road, Bristol.
Learn more about Rice and her art at susanbartlettrice.com.
Thank you, Mr. Dapkins: A package from Pemaquid Pond artist and writer Dale Dapkins arrived in the mail for me recently here at the LCN from Florida, where Dapkins spends the chillier months. In it were a little note and the three illustrated children’s books of his that I wrote about in my Dec. 5 “Artsbeat” column – “Maine Moose Dill Pickle,” “The Lobster Boat,” and “The Homeliest Angel and the Last Honey Bee.”
“The Lobster Boat,” in fine Dapkins fashion, is a wacky take on the Edward Lear poem “The Owl and the Pussycat.” It starts out: “The owl and the pussycat went to sea/ in a pea green lobster boat/ which they rented from a bunny/ who needed some money/ to buy himself a faux fur coat.”
Funny illustrations as well!
Surprises in the mail from artist and author Dale Dapkins! (Christine LaPado-Breglia photo)
RIP, Paula Winokur: The local ceramics community is saddened by the passing of widely known Philadelphia porcelain artist Paula Winokur, who died at the age of 82 on Sunday, Feb. 4. Winokur is a past board member of the Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts in Newcastle. She was honored in October 2017 as a Watershed “Legend.”
“Watershed mourns the loss of our dear friend and colleague Paula Winokur. As an artist, teacher, activist, wife, mother, and devoted friend, she touched the lives of so many,” said a recent email I received from Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts.
Donations may be made in Winokur’s memory to Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, 10 Brick Hill Road, Newcastle, ME 04553.
See you in a couple of weeks: I am going on vacation to visit family in Germany for the last two weeks of February. “Lincoln County Artsbeat” will be back on Thursday, March 8.
(Email me at clbreglia@lcnme.com or write me a letter in care of The Lincoln County News, P.O. Box 36, Damariscotta, ME 04543. I love to hear from readers.)
