The Center for Maine Contemporary Art, is a really great contemporary arts institution in Rockland, Maine, that supports local and national emerging and established contemporary artists who have associations with Maine.
CMCA’s Art You Love Auction is online now via Paddle8. Bidding opened on February 14 and closes on Friday, February 28, at 5 p.m. Some pieces are affordable artworks. Proceeds from the CMCA auction support its contemporary art exhibitions and educational programming.
Here’s a sampling of the Center for Maine Contemporary Art auction offerings:
Kate Russo, Odd Couple #4, 2013 Oil on panel, 6 x 6 in
Tracy Miller, Blackberries, 2019 Oil on canvas, 10 x 10 in
Meghan Brady, GG, 2019 Woodcut on kozo, Edition of 10, 10 x 8.5 in
Peter Halley, Exchange, 1996 Screen print with texture plate, 52 of 100, 22 x 30 in
Gail Skudera, Portrait VWoolf/Desert Bloom 3, 2018 Loom woven-photo & color print on paper with cotton, linen, & chenille fibers 8.5 x 11 in
Jenny Brillhart, Jade, 9:55am, September, 2019 Oil on Yupo paper, 26 x 20 in
Greta Van Campen, August Greens, 2019 Acrylic on panel, 6 x 6 in
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Frame your art through StyleCarrot partner Framebridge.
Along with everyone else with an Instagram account I created a #topnine2016 for my @StyleCarrotCurates account, where I exclusively post artwork that I live with, work with, or discover as I go about my life. (My main account @StyleCarrot has a broader reach, featuring interiors, food, cocktails, art, nature, and other beautiful things that catch my eye. I hope you will follow both @StyleCarrotCurates and@StyleCarrot on Instagram!) Here’s a bit more about the top nine (plus one, which tied for ninth place). They’re all wonderful works and include a pieces from a couple of the world’s best known artists, local New England artists, pieces I’ve shown in my curatorial endeavors, and also an artwork from my living room.
Que Tourne Le Vent, acrylic on canvas, 48×48
Abstract painting by Canadian artist Karine Leger from her exhibition at Lanoue Gallery in Boston’s SoWa district that I saw at a First Friday a year ago. I love her work and clearly so does everyone else as this is the most liked post on my @StyleCarrotCurates Instagram feed.
Rapture and Persimmon, oil, resin, spray paint and paper on linen, 48×36
These two stunning beauties are by my friend Sarah Lutz, who lives and works as a full time artist in New York City and Provincetown. She and Mike Carroll of Schoolhouse Gallery in Ptown lent me the paintings for a pop-up art gallery cocktail party I threw at my home in Truro this summer. I wanted to keep them forever; it’s as if Sarah painted them for the space. Although I didn’t splurge on these (they are still available; let me know if you’re interested), I did acquire a Sarah Lutz original at the Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill auction. I posted it here, and although it didn’t make the top nine likes on IG, it easily tops my list of personal favorites.
This fall my husband and I took a weekend jaunt to Nantucket. Another big thank you to White Elephant Elephant Hotel, Hy-Line Cruises,Lola 41, and the boutiques I visited, which included Pete’s Fish Tales Prints. Artist Peter Van Dingstee studied the Japanese art of gyotaku which entails creating prints on rice paper using actual fish. Here he has rolled out a large swordfish print. You can see more of his work on the full blog post I did here.
from the Synthetic series
It’s not fall without plenty of shots from the SMFA Sale. This portrait by L.A. fashion photographer Hannah Bates is right up my alley. So much so that my husband purchased it for me for Chanukah. At least I think he did; there’s been an artwork just this size wrapped in brown paper in our living room since that night. I’ll find out for sure when I return to Boston after holiday break; fingers crossed. Hannah Bates is an MFA candidate at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Celestial Anemone, pen, ink & collage on paper, 11 x 8.5
Providence-based artist Jenny Brown makes the most magical marine-inspired mixed media collages. I hung three at my pop-up this summer and a Truro couple bought two for their daughter. Jenny gave me this piece, which is a print of an original, this fall when I returned the third piece. I still need to have it framed, but it the meantime it’s propped up on my living room bookshelf.
A work by Ellsworth Kelly at the 2016 SMFA Sale.
My Garden Door and Entering the Garden, oil on canvas, 25×25
A new acquaintance told me to check out Boston-based artist Laura Allis Richardson, who works at Fenway Studios. She graciously invited me for a studio visit (full blog post here). I left with these two pieces, now on display and for sale at Webster & Company in the Boston Design Center. (I can help if you are interested.) Mr. Webster and I have mounted a new exhibition for the Fall/Winter 2016-17 season; here’s a peek.
Last February I went to the Boca Raton Museum for the first time, where I spotted this Louise Nevelson assemblage. I still remember learning about Louise Nevelson’s work in the Art Since 1945 class I took at summer semester at NYU in college. A week later I went to a dinner party at a friend’s parents’ home on Fifth Avenue (or maybe it was Park Avenue?) . . . in their foyer was a small Nevelson sculpture, as well as a Giacometti.
This is a favorite piece from my personal collection, purchased for me by my husband at Skinner Auctions, so I’m thrilled it made it into the @StyleCarrotCurates #topnine2016. It’s a dancer by the Russian-born, American artist Abraham Walkowitz. The piece, which sits on my mantle in Boston, pictures modern dancer Isadora Duncan, of whom he has done over 5,000 drawings. It inspires me during my living room yoga sessions.
Jitterbug, oil on canvas, 24×18 • Sun on the Shore, acrylic on canvas, 24×24
This is technically the tenth, but it tied in the number of likes with the dancer above. This Instagram shot pictures a stretch of wall on the second floor of our Truro house, hung with lots of artwork for the pop up. The two paintings on the left are by Maine artist Jenny Prinn. I first hung Jitterbug at the model apartment I decorated at Troy Boston. Later both pieces hung at Webster & Company. I haven’t returned them to Jenny yet so if you’re interested they are still for sale!
Maine-based photographer Cig Harvey‘s new book Gardening at Night is both a visual and literary treat. The poetic prose that weaves through the book accompanying her dreamlike photographs is as magical as the images themselves.
A former photography teacher and city dweller, and current mother and Midcoast Mainer, Cig Harvey is represented in Boston by the Robert Klein Gallery on Newbury Street, where the Gardening at Night exhibition is on display through June 13.
I blogged about Cig Harvey’s photographs last March, when I first discovered them through Artsy. I’ve since connected with her and count her among my favorites. I am excited to be displaying “The Goldfinch” in the model apartment I am decorating at Troy Boston this spring. Many thanks to Cig and Maja at Robert Klein for making that happen.
Here is a sampling of images straight from the pages of Harvey’s book, and a quick shot from the gallery too. (Cig, if you see this, I am sorry to have missed you at the opening!)
Yesterday I finally caught up with miles of blog posts on Remodelista. I found a few items I must have, including the work of Jennifer Steen Booher, who photographs natural object assemblages under the name Quercus Designs. I purchased two 12x12s (the first two shown here) from her Etsy shop, and plan to hang them in our house on the Cape. The silhouetted specimens in each of the arrays have a crisp sparseness, that I think, along with the colors, that work really well. So simple, but very satisfying. She writes about her work — where she found the tokens and such —on her blog.Bar Harbor Yacht Club, May 29, 2011
