Wiscasset Bay Gallery: Art through time
"A North Wind" - Cordelia Edwards
Keith Oehmig - "Monhegan Island Houses" - painted in fall of 2025. Courtesy of the artist
"No Hands Cartwheel" - photo by Cordelia Edwards
Back Sculpture Garden. Courtesy of Cordelia Oehmig 
Wiscasset Bay Gallery, 75 Main St., Wiscasset. Courtesy of Cordelia Oehmig
Keith Oehmig painting. Courtesy of the artist
"A North Wind" - Cordelia Edwards
Keith Oehmig - "Monhegan Island Houses" - painted in fall of 2025. Courtesy of the artist
"No Hands Cartwheel" - photo by Cordelia Edwards
Back Sculpture Garden. Courtesy of Cordelia Oehmig
Wiscasset Bay Gallery, 75 Main St., Wiscasset. Courtesy of Cordelia Oehmig
Keith Oehmig painting. Courtesy of the artistKeith and Cordelia Oehmig have been acquiring new work for Wiscasset Bay Gallery's 42nd year. They've been wintering in Florida, enjoying life on “Jimmy Buffet time,” but once art collectors, always art collectors, no matter the season – or location. Off season that location is Siesta Key, a barrier island off Sarasota in Florida. When they’re not buying art, they’re making it: Cordelia with her camera and Keith with his oils.
Cordelia’s B&W photographs will be exhibited this season. Before the couple’s return to Maine in mid-April, she was in her studio daily and Siesta Key’s public beach. “Initially I was intrigued with the visiting Amish and their traditional dress, and then a variety of the beachgoers there."
Although she loves the natural world, it’s people catching her eye, some of whom Cordelia captures through her lens. “It’s evolved into a kind of street photography at the beach. I utilize black and white for its directness and clarity; stripping away the familiar and mundane to heighten the moment.”
Keith is in his element while painting plein air from Monhegan Island, the islands around Casco Bay, Reid State Park to Camden, Southwest Harbor and Acadia; but he also spends some time in studio. “When you're painting plein air, you're paying so much attention to light and everything that's happening around you, hopefully your emotions coming through too,” he said. “But when you isolate things in a studio, it gives you time to more explore things and maybe depart more from what's directly in front of your eyes."
The couple have lots of new acquisitions to share this season: Two new works by Flemish artists circa 17th century, both about five feet long and three foot high views of Paris 1680-ish; paintings of William Thon and Yolanda Fusco, a few new paintings by French impressionists of the School of Paris; and the big Fourth of July show of 20th century Monhegan artists focuses on 1912-1914 work by Jay Hall Connaway.
The gallery's charming back garden has seating for five at a small table, with more art, including the wooden assemblages of Southport artist Andre Benoit.
Wiscasset Bay Gallery, 75 Main St., is open 11 a..m. – 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday and by chance Monday and Tuesday.
