New Work:
Grant Drumheller & Kathi Smith
A two-person exhibition of vibrant and exciting new figurative work, landscapes and seascapes by two extraordinarily bold and energetic painters, Grant Drumheller and Kathi Smith.
Artist Talk, June 9, 6 p.m.: Join us for our first in person event since the pandemic: an artist talk by Drumheller and Smith this exhibition. The talk will also be streamed live on Facebook.
I am a figurative artist. I am moved to paint the world I inhabit, the spaces and people of my experience. Whether I am in Maine, or New York City, or Rome, or my home studio in New Hampshire, I carry that from painting to painting. My work has become more color driven in recent years, and perhaps in certain aspects more about what lies around the figures.
As for abstraction, I employ abstract concepts in the formation of a work, and when I am erasing a painting or altering areas, I return it to an abstract composition, i.e., one where only shapes of color exist.
Since I am no longer teaching, I feel greater liberty in my work, free to try different techniques, subjects, and media. Freedom is the true currency of being an artist.
~ Grant Drumheller
Drumheller earned a BFA (1976) and a Master of Fine Arts (1978) cum laude from Boston University. He also studied with Philip Guston, James Weeks and Reed Kay. Drumheller has taught at Boston University, the Art Institute of Boston and recently retired from his post as Professor of Art at the University of New Hampshire. He has been the recipient of a Fulbright-Hays Grant in Painting to Italy. He has also been the recipient of a Blanche Colman Award, a National Endowment for the Arts Artist’s Fellowship, a New England Foundation for the Arts Grant and a grant from the Pollock- Krasner Foundation.
Almost exactly one year ago, I sanded down every oil painting I had going in the studio and started anew. To me, there was no going back to the world in which they were created. For a while instead of painting, I took long walks along the edges and through the interior of Great Cranberry Island. I made sketches and took thousands of photographs of the outer islands which I had the chance to sail around for the first time. Through this process I eventually came back to myself and found a point of stability in the studio. I created these newest paintings there, mostly from memory. When I needed more information I would hike back to sit in front of the subject to soak it in. My “sea songs” include the quiet notes of night crossings on our boat to the island, the familiar tunes of known places and spaces along the interior and the steady rhythm of the ocean. They have served as my meditations in this strange year.
To me, Maine is rough, unforgiving, curious, familiar, and beautiful. The textured surfaces, energetic marks, and color notes that I use are intended to reach all five senses. I’m interested in making paintings that are tangible, physical, and all-embracing. And while the paintings I make are still rooted in observation, I am equally interested in abstraction and expression. My paintings are compilations of real and remembered worlds that I visit ritually, and are made to honor the sense of each of those places.
~ Kathi Smith
Smith earned a BFA in Painting & Drawing from the University of Southern Maine, and an MFA in Painting from the University of New Hampshire. Smith is an Associate Professor of Studio Arts at Husson University in Bangor. She is an active participant in the Maine contemporary art scene and keeps her studio in Bangor, ME.
GRANT DRUMHELLER
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KATHI SMITH
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Featuring Eileen Gillespie in the side gallery
In our side gallery this month we have work by another highly accomplished Maine painter, Eileen Gillespie, whose vibrantly expressionistic oil paintings are a joyful and energetic take on the tradition of floral still life.
My work uses a visceral painting language to describe the natural world in structural terms. Direct observation of both local landscapes and distant places to which I visit serve as subject matter and inspiration. Daily walks out in nature provide much of the content for my paintings. My paintings aim to capture a moment in time. It is through painting that I discover, experiment and enjoy leaps of faith that land onto the canvas and become unique objects of their own. Emotion, abstraction, rigor and playfulness are all involved. Working with flowers and the genre of still life brings the subject at hand directly into the studio. Through observation the floral subject becomes a means to further explore the medium of painting itself. When the marks become alive on the canvas they become their own individual subject and object. The painting takes over and what is left is an abstract representation of the spark that the painting is intended to portray. The historical aspect of floral painting as a genre is fascinating to me and as a painter as I am taking a turn at placing myself into this history. In the end I find that the timeless lushness, intricacy of nature, expression of color and gesture is well suited to my painting vocabulary and sense of expression.
~ Eileen Gillespie
Gillespie earned her BFA at the Rhode Island School of Design, where a year studying in Rome with RISD’s European Honors Program marked the genesis of a career long interest in architecture and structure in nature as a subject for her work. She received her MFA in painting from the University of Pennsylvania. Gillespie’s awards include a visiting artist position at the American Academy in Rome, a residency at the Millay Colony for the Arts, and a Fellowship at the Carina House on Monhegan Island, Maine. She is the recipient of a 2004 Artist Fellowship from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Ms. Gillespie has exhibited in numerous solo shows in Boston and Maine and many group shows throughout the northeast. Her work can be found in the collections of The Boston Athenaeum, Fidelity Investments, Wellington Management Company, Mount Sinai Hospital, and the Hertz Corporation among others.
