A watercolor painting of the Pemaquid Lighthouse.
The Gwendolyn Evans Gallery in Walpole (South Bristol) will open Wednesday, June 26. It will feature more than 300 original oils, watercolors, pastels, and mixed media works by award-winning artist Gwendolyn Evans.
Artist Gwendolyn Evans
Located at 75 Hunters Landing in Walpole, the gallery will delightfully surprise visitors by the abundance and variety of one woman’s work. Having lived in 35 different places and painted in a dozen countries, Gwendolyn Evans permanently moved to Maine “just in time for winter” and began prepping her in-home gallery — her fourth public gallery.
“I’m using every inch of wall space in this tiny home,” Evans said. “I’d envisioned buying a historic home with a huge barn for my art but it didn’t happen. Instead, we are hidden away in quiet woods along the Damariscotta River with gorgeous nightly sunsets.”
Visitors will find three floors of art and an enthusiastic artist-owner happy to share her work, knowledge, and life experience.
Evans has painted professionally for 50 years, garnering over 40 awards and exhibiting in more than 80 juried exhibitions. Her works are in corporate and private collections, as well as in the family homes of 9/11 victims for whom she created and donated portraits from photos of lost loved ones. Evans has taught classes and workshops for decades, watercolor being her specialty. She had the privilege of studying with some “greats”: Charles Reid, Fred Graff, Claude Croney, James Green, Tom Hill, and Daniel Greene, among others.
“I love the unique traits of each medium — the transparency and radiance of watercolor, the impasto and translucency of oil, the pure vibrant pigment and soft edges possible with pastel,” said Evans. “In this diversity, I search for one thing: truth, whether it appears as light or dark cast on an adobe wall or a nude’s thigh, or in the sometimes shadowed journey that is abstraction. The process is the same: search for truth, create a solid composition, find a flow of contrasts and subtleties, radiant hues, a rhythm. Listen to what comes. Faithfully obey what is given to you to see and paint. Work relentlessly.”
Evans’ gallery is open Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Classes and private lessons are available upon request. Evans also gives free demonstrations the first Friday of each month from 11 a.m. to noon.
Free Demo First Fridays are as follows:
July 5: Watercolor basics
Aug. 2: Working with yupo
Sept. 6: “The Joy and Challenges of Plein Air Painting, Part I”
Oct. 4: “The Joy and Challenges of Plein Air Painting, Part II”
Nov. 1: Pastel basics
Dec. 6: “The Thinking and Structuring Behind Mixed-Media Abstraction”
Go to Evans’ website to see nearly 100 of her paintings and read about her diverse life: gwendolynevans.com.
