“Monhegan Way,” by Jan Kilburn (Photo courtesy Pemaquid Art Gallery)
It’s a delight to compare the paintings of two highly skilled Pemaquid Art Gallery watercolorists, Jan Kilburn and Gary Smith. Kilburn is a 14-year member of the gallery and her art classes in Damariscotta are familiar to patrons and artists of coastal Maine, whereas Smith moved to Round Pond five years ago and has been a member for just two years.
Both are traditional watercolorists, masters of the medium, and both paint local scenes, villages, harbors, and seascapes.
Primarily a studio painter, Kilburn’s views are gentle, calm and reflective, but colorful, with emphasis on flowers, quaint houses, villages, harbors. Enticing paths pull the viewer in to enjoy the charming scenes.
Smith’s focus is on grittier views; working waterfronts, and shipyards with boats and there are often people moving through his landscapes. He uses a darker, more limited palette to create dramatic effects. His little figures are often dwarfed by the drama of the scenes in which they find themselves.
Kilburn is primarily self-taught, but also studied with several of the great watercolorists of New England. She has taught for years in her Damariscotta studio and previously in Dover, N.H. She has painted with friends on Monhegan annually, one of her favorite locations.
Her studio is one of a group of neighboring art studios, The Bristol Road Galleries, and her notecards and prints of her work, available in many Midcoast locations, are very popular. Further examples of her work can be viewed on her website: jankilburn.com, and at Small Wonder Gallery in Camden.
Smith has been painting for 30 years. A naval architect and marine engineer, Smith took art classes from 1990-1998 at the Alexandria, Va. Art League. He moved to Juneau, Alaska in the late 1990s and eventually to Round Pond in 2019. He prefers painting, plein air, scenes with which he is personally connected, revealing the mood and feeling of the scene rather than focusing on accurate detail. His work has appeared locally in the Damariscotta River Arts Gallery and can be seen on his website: garysmithartworks.com.
The other 2024 exhibiting members of the Pemaquid Group of Artists include: Barbara Applegate, Debra Arter, Stephen Busch, John Butke, Dianne Dolan, Gwendolyn Evans, Sarah Fisher, Claire Hancock, Kay Sawyer Hannah, Kathleen Horst, Doug Houle, Hannah Ineson, Will Kefauver, Barbara Klein, Patti Leavitt, Sally Loughridge, Jon Luoma, Judy Nixon, Debra Paul, Alexandra Perry-Weiss, Paul Sherman, Cindy Spencer, Bill Stanton, Liliana Thelander, Kim Skillen Traina, Barbara Vanderbilt, Bob Vaughan, Candace Vlcek, Carol Wiley, and Sherrie York.
Located in Pemaquid Point Lighthouse Park in Bristol, the Pemaquid Art Gallery is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information call 677-2752 or go to pemaquidartgallery.com.
“Pemaquid Morning,” by Gary Smith (Photo courtesy Pemaquid Art Gallery)
