With deep sorrow, we announce that Priscilla J. McCandless, 71, of Nobleboro, passed away on Sunday, March 16, 2025 due to complications arising from an impaired heart valve.
Priscilla was born in Franklin, Penn. on Oct. 22, 1953, to the late Dr. G.C. McCandless and Dr. Pauline McCandless.
Priscilla studied at the Rhode Island School of Design, where she also met and married her husband, Stephen Vowles. She graduated with a BFA in painting, and the couple moved to Goffstown, N.H. shortly after.
In 1975, Priscilla helped Stephen’s parents, Lovedy and John Vowles, open Lovedy’s Flower Shop on Main Street in Goffstown, where she channeled her creativity and training into becoming a well-respected designer, helping her customers celebrate special events in their lives with memorable arrangements.
When Lovedy and John retired, Priscilla purchased the shop and ran it successfully until 1999, when Priscilla and Stephen moved from New Hampshire to Nobleboro. There they purchased and renovated the former Baptist Church in Damariscotta Mills to be their home and Priscilla’s studio and gallery space.
Priscilla then devoted her time to her art and to the local artist community, offering the gallery space in the church for temporary shows, allowing fledgling artists a place to get their work in the public eye. The scope of this work increased when in 2005, Priscilla and a group of fellow artists founded The Stable Gallery on Water Street in Damariscotta. The gallery represented about 40 artists each summer season, allowing new artists to establish themselves and better-known artists to grow their following. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the gallery to close in 2019.
Priscilla was also active for many years in the project to restore the Damariscotta Mills Fish Ladder.
She will be remembered by those whose lives she touched as a person of depth and imagination who saw the world through a different lens and let the world see that vision through her art.
Priscilla and Stephen celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary this past October.
Priscilla is survived by her husband, Stephen Vowles; brother, Dr. David (Julie) McCandless; half-sister, Sidney P. McCandless; sister-in-law, Jill Baum; brother-in-law, John Vowles; nieces, Emma (Karen) McCandless, Claire (Gio) Attisano, Jill (Michael) Silva, Naomi Baum, Paula (Albert) Pate; nephews, Garrett (Linsey) McCandless, Stephen (Devon) Vowles, Robert (Kathleen) Vowles; six great-nephews; two great-nieces; and numerous cousins.
Plans are being made for a gathering in the near future to celebrate Priscilla’s life.
Arrangements are under the direction and care of the Strong-Hancock Funeral Home, 612 Main St., Damariscotta, ME 04543. Condolences and messages for her family may be expressed by visiting stronghancock.com.
