Sylvan Gallery Celebrates 25 Years of Art, Connections

Paintings of lighthouses, open fields, and flowers line the walls of the Sylvan Gallery in Wiscasset. Since the end of June, the front window has displayed a notice, text marking the gallery’s 25th anniversary.

Owner and Director Ann Scanlan has led the gallery through three spaces, retaining many of the artists she started with in 2001.

Scanlan said she grew up with an appreciation for art thanks to her mother, who was a former art teacher.

“There’s creativity in all of us, and I just happened to have a mother that brought it out early,” Scanlan said. “We had crayons from the get-go and we had paints, and we were always using our fingers to move the paint.”

Scanlan also developed a connection to Maine at a young age due to frequent vacations. Many of the sights, along with the kindness of the people she met, stuck with her, she said.

Scanlan attended college at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. She then studied at the Arts Students League in New York City. As time passed, she and her husband grew tired of “rushing around,” she said, and in 2001, sought to move outside the city. The town of Clinton, Conn. drew them in.

“There was this beautiful, small Victorian house on Route 1, and the Realtor who took us into it said ‘You know what, this is commercially zoned’ … that was like a light bulb going off.” Scanlan said.

Though Scanlan had always considered owning a gallery, it had not yet come to fruition. Once she and her husband moved in, they called friends who were artists and began curating what would become Sylvan Gallery.

Success came slowly and through a lot of labor, Scanlan said, but she enjoyed the work the gallery provided.

“I loved forging deeper friendships with artists,” Scanlan said. “When I did move the gallery here back in 2012, I brought my strongest artists with me, and they’re still here”

While Scanlan formed bonds with many collectors in Clinton, the lack of tourism or a transitory community made it a struggle to sell more work.

“We’d always wanted to live in Maine but we couldn’t figure out what we would do here. And I was like, ‘We can move the gallery to Maine,’” Scanlan said.

During a visit to family, Scanlan saw a space in Wiscasset with a “for rent” sign. Scanlan mentioned her gallery to the landlord, who agreed to rent her the space. In 2015, she moved the gallery to a larger space on Water Street where it still resides.

In all three locations, Scanlan has seen common threads. All three locations were in historic buildings, and she continues to curate the gallery with artists whose works she responds to and who she enjoys communicating with.

Over the years, she has seen increased traffic in the gallery, in part due to the location.

“We’re lucky to have such a strong business community with really interesting businesses in Wiscasset,” Scanlan said.

In running the gallery, Scanlan tries to let people be drawn in by the art and slowly make their way back. She greets people as they enter, sometimes coming out to meet people intrigued by the artwork. She said she is always “overjoyed” to talk to people about specific works, especially observations viewers make.

All of the artwork is representational, meaning it is painting scenes that exist in reality.

“People can relate to the artwork, because it is representational,” Scanlan said. “Even though some of it is more minimal, abstract, some is more impressionistic, some is more strikingly realistic.”

One of those artists is Scanlan herself, who paints many scenes inspired by her location.

“I thought moving to Maine, all I would want to do is paint the ocean,” Scanlan said.

Scanlan ended up being intrigued by the composition of sheep she saw on local farms, she said. She also began painting scenes from Wiscasset. One of her in-progress works is a study from last year’s Wiscasset Fourth of July parade. She is also working on paintings of flowers.

Another artist at the gallery is Laura Winslow, who painted a work honoring the gallery’s anniversary. Winslow said she enjoyed painting a place she knew, as she was able to pick up on “vibes” while creating it.

Entitled “A Quarter Century at the Sylvan Gallery,” the work has been printed on postcards for gallery visitors. It displays the gallery’s entrance based off of photographs Scanlan took. Winslow decided to feature Scanlan in the work as well.

“(Scanlan) is tremendous, and she had to be in the picture. She’s very welcoming,” Winslow said.

After 25 years, Scanlan has no plans to make major changes to the gallery. She hopes visitors will continue to enjoy the artwork there.

“When you add art to your walls, it totally changes the feeling of the room. And it can be an emotional thing,” Scanlan said. “It’s about bringing emotion up in people and it’s amazing watching them have connections to an artwork.”

The Sylvan Gallery is located at 49 Water St. in Wiscasset. For more information, call 882-8290, email info@sylvangallery.com, or find the gallery on Facebook.