Maine is so lucky that native daughter Lyn Asselta has returned to her home state. Asselta, who is one of the most skilled pastel painters in the country, has spent the spring creating her new Gleason show of ravishing pastels. The show, “Lyn Asselta: Coming Home to Maine” opens Thursday, Aug. 4 and continues through Aug. 30. A reception will be held for Lyn on Aug. 5, First Friday, from 5-7 p.m.

Involved in fine art and fine craft for the past 25 years, Lyn Asselta's extensive background has included titles such as elementary school art teacher, draftsman, calligrapher, workshop instructor, and creator of award-winning fine-art gourd vessels. However, at one point, she opened an old box of Grumbacher pastels and never looked back. An ever-changing life prompted her to sit down and evaluate what really inspired her creativity and made her wonder what she would still like to say to the world. While pondering this question, she discovered that the majority of her memories revolved around places and how she had felt in those places. Images of fields of Queen Anne's Lace and old farmhouses on hills, waves crashing against rock and fog obscuring shorelines, the sun setting over golden marshes and silhouetting ancient oaks, mist on the distant hills in the morning...these were the images that lived in her memory and that carried a sense of timelessness and endless possibilities.

Having had the good fortune to live in places that offered up amazing scenery, from the salt marshes and waterways of Florida, to the Smoky Mountains of the Carolinas, to the rock-bound coast of Maine, Lyn realized that her life's one common thread was her fascination with the landscape. She has always found herself drawn to places that have a rugged, solitary strength, places with untold stories, and places where she feels able to lose herself in the nature that surrounds her.  Pastel, as a medium, seems to be a perfect metaphor for her relationship to these landscapes... vibrant, expressive, exuberant and tactile; pastel allows Lyn to hold a piece of color in her hand and to capture the essence of the wild, untouched beauty she finds in the world.

Lyn is a Signature Member of the Pastel Society of America (PSA), an International Association of Pastel Societies (IAPS) Eminent Pastelist, a member of the Salmagundi Club, the Eastern League of Professional Artists and American Women Artists. She is the founder of the First Coast Pastel Society (FL) and is a Member of Excellence of the Southeastern Pastel Society. Her award winning paintings have appeared in shows and exhibitions throughout the United States, and in invitational exhibitions in France and China.

In 2009, Lyn had the honor of being an Artist in Residence for the National Park Service at Acadia National Park in Maine. Her work was featured in the February 2016 issue of Pastel Journal magazine and her painting "Blue Morning, Crescent Beach" appeared on its cover. She has also been featured in Pratique des Arts magazine and Plein Air magazine. In 2018, Lyn published her first book, Seeing the Landscape,a collection of her paintings and prose. Lyn travels extensively to teach both studio and plein air pastel landscape workshops. Lyn Asselta lives in Midcoast Maine.

Gleason Fine Art is located at 31 Townsend Ave. in downtown Boothbay Harbor. For more information, call the gallery at 633-6849. Our entire collection can be viewed on our website, www.gleasonfineart.com.