For the first time since 2019, artists and friends and family gathered Saturday, Oct. 8 at Boothbay Region Art Foundation for the Art in ME awards presentation. There was a great crowd of 50-60 for the presentations by BRAF artist and board member Sarah Wilde. New this year: The placing ribbons were made by artist and potter Ann Hedgecock; each one had a ceramic medallion from which the ribbons hung. 

 

The winning entries selected by juror and artist Kathleen Galligan were: First Prize - Robert Howell, Jefferson - “Potential Gravity;” Second Prize - Lili Bates “Autumn Oak - on vellum;” and Third Prize - Linda Packard (Bangor) “Old Secrets.” Neither Bates nor Packard attended.

 

There were three Honorable Mentions: Sandra Harper “From the Shadows;” André Benoit, Southport - “Homage to Zorach;” and Marylou Lazos, East Boothbay for “Evolution.” A cool tidbit about Lazos’ piece: It includes a gold-plated computer motherboard found at a yard sale.

 

Wilde said Galligan took an hour and a half to choose the work for the show just a few days before.

 

Said Howell of his top prize painting, “Compositionally, I really aspire to having things orchestrated in terms of visual events within the painting. Things have to be balanced so that when you are looking at part of a painting you’re enticed to look further. Abstracts can bring to mind something you already know, that you recognize through your psychological experience,” Howell said. “I work, overall, finding a focus that leads to the next development (in the painting). If I like it, it has to be coordinated into the next event to make it all happen.”

 

Mark Coates curated the show of 70 artworks including sculpture, mixed media, assemblage, watercolors, oils, acrylics and more. Coates said approximately 66 artists submitted one or two pieces for consideration.

 

In addition to the Art in ME award announcements, it was the opening night for the Tony van Hasselt AWS Memorial Show upstairs at the Art Foundation.

 

Jan van Hasselt and the board at BRAF began planning the show during the summer. Tony, who died Jan. 20, was a beloved person and first rate watercolorist, educator and author. How did Jan choose the 20 paintings to represent her late husband’s work? Blending Maine and Florida scenes and places with those in France or Italy. A bit like Tony’s “Oh, the Places I’ve Been” shows in summer 2021 at the Opera House and then at Studio 53.

 

“Most people want to see Maine scenes, and we have some of those, but Tony painted so many from places far away,” said van Hasselt. “There’s the Greek Orthodox church in Florida and that old tree. I remember there was an older woman who fought to save that tree from being cut down to put a road through – and she saved it. Tony painted that tree many times.”

 

There’s the painting of the building Tony and Jan’s apartment was in, in Provence. The former, a goat herder’s house, is captured in the painting entitled “A Provencal Village View.” 

 

“The town was at the top of a mountain. It’s a very special place and we were there many times ...,”  recalled Jan. 

 

All of the works in both Art In ME and the Tony van Hasselt Memorial Show are for sale. This exhibition continues through Nov. 13.

 

BRAF is at 1 Townsend Ave. in Boothbay Harbor. Gallery hours are from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, visit https://www.boothbayartists.org