Sylvan Gallery is pleased to feature the landscape and figurative paintings by Joann Ballinger and Shirley Cean Youngs. The exhibition runs from August 31 to September 23.

These renowned artists have shared a friendship for 40 years and a similar passion for creating works of art that focus on nature, often with scenes of women or children at the water's edge. While both woman have been acclaimed for their poetic vision, each achieving numerous honors and distinctions including signature membership in the American Society of Marine Artists and the Pastel Society of America, their supportive long-lasting friendship is equally impressive.

They met in 1974, early in their artistic careers at the New London Art Students League in Connecticut and quickly recognized that they were on a similar path, working to find the time to paint while raising young families. They began meeting once and then twice a week to paint together and critique each other's work. Recognition of their talents quickly followed.

Both artists became instructors in the Lyman Allyn Art Museum of New London's art program, and later at the Lyme Art Association in Old Lyme, Conn. Ballinger has now taught continuously for 26 years. Her encouraging and perceptive critiques have kept her class in high demand with long waiting lists. Ballinger and Youngs still paint together once a week, inspiring and encouraging one another, sharing many of same interests in subject matter but each retaining their own distinctive style.

Ballinger's interest in art began at a young age. Her grandfather designed silverware for Gorham Silver in Providence, R.I., and her father was a draftsman. She was given her first set of oils at age 11 and was accepted into the art program at the prestigious Norwich Free Academy, drawing casts at the Slater Museum and learning the fundamentals of all the various art mediums. When it became apparent that pastel was her favorite medium, her late grandfather's box of pastels was given to her as a gift. Receiving them with the knowledge that her grandfather succeeded as an artist inspired her to believe that she could succeed too.

Ballinger often paints en plein air, but when she wants to feature a figure or animal, she relies on photo reference for the details and completes the work in her studio.

“It is important to work en plein air or from the model,” she says. “It helps you to better use your reference material. Working from life keeps everything fresh.”

Her palette is rich and vibrant in color and over the years she has become known for using certain trademark colors. Ballinger's pastels are often mistaken for oil paintings as her distinctive marks resemble brushstrokes and she blends only sparingly. It is important to her to get beyond the technical side, to convey a sense of mood, and that is when she listens to her creative side.

In “Under the Rock” she captures the sense of anticipation and discovery in the two children who are exploring amidst the rocks at the water's edge.

“I look for interesting effects of color and light but I also want to paint scenes that will remind viewers of a special time in their lives, so I look for scenes that remind me of a special time in my life.”

It is that emotional connection to her subject matter and beautiful color combinations that continue to keep her work in high demand. Ballinger is represented in galleries across the East Coast and Florida, and her significant awards include the Connecticut Pastel Society Honor Award in 2005. In 2008, she had a feature article in the June/July issue of American Artistmagazine. She lectures and gives demonstrations frequently and in 2011 demonstrated her technique at the Mystic Maritime Gallery in Mystic, Conn.

Shirley Cean Youngs grew up in upstate New York spending countless childhood hours exploring the woods and fields and the shores of Lake Ontario learning much about nature. It was after she, her husband and young daughter and son moved to Connecticut in 1960 that she observed a class outside painting and realized that that was what she wanted to do. The instructor was Foster Caddell and Youngs quickly signed up for his workshop. Observing nature was already a part of her and Youngs quickly learned the tools for artistic expression. Youngs admits that except for a few private tutorships and occasional workshops with artists she admired such as Robert Brackman, Daniel Greene and Charles Movalli, that books, museums and ultimately nature, have been her instructors.

After years painting plein air landscapes and studio figure drawing, Youngs developed the Impressionist style that she has become known for. Youngs feels she was “beckoned” to the easel by her sensitivity to the moods of nature.

“Art to me is an expression too subtle for words, to be given this means of expression is a gift beyond value.” Her paintings in the exhibit convey the soft luminous light of the ocean air, and like Ballinger, her work often focuses on capturing wonderful moments of times spent along the water.

Youngs taught art to gifted children and seniors, as well as to matriculated art students at Connecticut's leading institutions. She is recognized as one of the leading living artists by “Who's Who in American Women.” She has had many “one woman” and juried exhibitions, both nationally and internationally. Invitations to exhibit her paintings have taken her work to such places as France, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Canada. Her works hang in the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington D.C., the collection of H.R.H. Prince Charles of England and numerous other celebrity, corporate, and private collections.

Her work is published in Rockport Publishers' editions of The Best of Oil Painting and Portrait Inspirations, and has been featured on magazine and book covers, as well as in numerous articles in books and newspapers.

A reviewer for the New York Timesdescribed Youngs as “capturing the beauty of life depicted."

She paints in the tradition of Degas and Mary Cassatt, and certainly will be cherished as one of Connecticut's finest American Impressionists.”

Sylvan Gallery directors Ann and Rick Scanlan are excited to offer a special feature of the work of these two artists. “We feel that they are national treasures having shown dedication and perseverance to their craft for forty years, always inspiring each other and sharing their knowledge with others, and continually evolving. They are truly remarkable artists and human beings.”

A selection of the work by nine other contemporary American fine artists will also be on display in the gallery, including paintings by Peter Layne Arguimbau, Al Barker, Angelo Franco, Tina Ingraham, Charles Kolnik, Paul Lipp, Victor Mays, Stan Moeller and Robert Noreika.

Call Ann or Rick Scanlan at 882-8290 for more information or visit www.sylvangallery.com. Also, find Sylvan Gallery on Facebook.

Gallery hours are Monday through Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.The gallery is at 60 Main St. in Wiscasset. The gallery is right on the corner of Main and Water Street, directly across from Sarah's Cafe and Red's Eats.