Damariscotta artist Polly Steadman will have a solo exhibition of her colorful, abstract oil paintings in the lobby area at Miles Memorial Hospital in Damariscotta from September 22 through November 2.

Largely self-taught, Steadman has been painting in oils since high school. When she moved to Edgecomb from New Hampshire in 1972, her painting background was haphazard and unfocused – a quickly grabbed pleasure at best. 

After arriving on the Midcoast, she naturally turned to reproducing the beauty around her, landscapes and seascapes, that she assumed was what she should paint. She joined a small group of like-minded women, The Brushstrokes of Maine.

She painted regularly, but after a while became somewhat disillusioned, because her “stiff and colorless” paintings left her uninspired.

Almost by chance she learned the “wet-on-wet” technique, which appealed to her, because an entire oil painting was completed in one session, instead of the painstaking months it had taken her to finish one canvas. Painting for her had changed from a challenge to a passion.

Because Steadman’s technique is all about the blending of the oil colors in the “wet-on-wet” process, the brushstrokes may be long and strong or short, light and quick. 

Among the Maine artists she credits with her artistic growth and direction are Lou Page, formerly of Mouse Island, Fred Kellogg of Thomaston, and Jean Harris of Damariscotta. 

Steadman’s work has been included in many area gallery exhibitions, solo shows in Maine and New Hampshire galleries as well as installations in health practice offices, restaurants, retirement homes and private residences.