“Looking at the work enmasse, I sensed creative freedom and vulnerability,” wrote show juror Bob Keyes. “Freedom and vulnerability keep art communities moving forward. To all the artists who submitted work, thank you for your willingness to lead the journey for us."

The large crowd at Boothbay Region Art Foundation was animated and abuzz Oct. 5 about the art, all large format, all impressive. Artists and friends checked out the work while enjoying homemade appetizers, wines and seltzer which meant everyone was suitably sated and increasingly curious when awards time came around.

BRAF board member Sarah Wilde began ringing a bell and as the crowd grew quiet the announcements began.

Juror Bob Keyes’ choice for Best In Show was by Valerie Hart: a mildly abstract acrylic painting entitled, "Ethereal Reflections.”

Said a very surprised Hart, “I just joined (BRAF) when I brought in the painting. I was intrigued by the large format of the show. I do fairly large paintings, but not usually as large as this! I live in Greenville half the year and Florida the other half. This painting is of a sun setting at a lake near me here in Maine. Color has become increasingly important in my art; it’s a way to express a myriad of emotions.”

A psychotherapist for decades, Hart understands the effect color has on us all. She taught the graduate program for psychiatric nurses at University of Southern Maine through 2017. Since then, she has been taking lessons here and in Florida.

Taking second place was Pam Cabanas' diptych, "Island Road" in watercolor and acrylic. The beach sand "road" flows through the ocean on one side and rocks on the right that appear to be liquifying before your eyes. It's a piece you could spend a great deal of time in. 

Tammy Rickers received a third place ribbon and prize for her “Dancing Dahlias.” She describes the painting as a compilation of several photographs with the petals taken from various images to create just one of the dahlias. As people walked around before the awards were announced, this piece drew much appreciative attention.

“So, it’s like a puzzle,” Rickers began. “It comes together in stages ...every petal. Dahlias are so inspiring and so different from one another. I have been endlessly in love with dahlias. This painting, or a version of it, was in a show in Portland before this one. I totally reworked it for this one. I knew I could do it better.”

Artist Nathan Allard of Somerville was one of three artists receiving an honorable mention from Keyes. The egg tempura painting of a raven or crow, entitled “Returning,” depicts a scene he came upon during a walk behind his home. He’d been thinking a lot about mortality and death after the passing of his grandmother in the fall of 2019, and the arrival of COVID-19 the following winter did little to lift his spirit.

“I brought the bird to my house and did many drawings and sketches of it,” Allard shared. “My medium is egg tempura (the mixing of dried color pigment with egg yolk). I took bones from the raven, charred them, and then used them for my brush to paint.”

Allard’s attention to detail with respect to the raven’s feathers is impressive, you can almost sense the meditative mindset, the focus of this artist as he recreated the bird’s feathers and body with its own bones just as he had found it.

The two artists not in attendance whose work also received honorable mentions were Marcus Parsons for "Way” and Judith Schuppien for “Trail 1, Monhegan.”

Schuppien’s painting captured a place on Monhegan Island many of us have probably walked, one of the beloved, serene “scapes” on the Island. You can see yourself sitting on one or two of those rocks listening to the cries of gulls in the sky and ravens perched in the pines. Heaven!

Parsons’ digital image intrigues in its simplicity. The figure of a human is outlined in black with everything inside red. Perhaps the black outline represents weariness of the journey, the weight of the backpack. The figure carries his walking sticks (look closely at the top of them, at first glance it’s one, but no, there are two). As the figure ascends, the trees on the right are but two swipes of a brush or stylus, or whatever was used to create this most intriguing work.

Among the other 50 artists selected for the show, from among the 100 who entered, are Andre Benoit, Carol Wiley, Douglas Gimbel, Linda Simmons-Arnold, Patricia Bradley, Fran Scannell, Ericka O’Rourke, David Estey, Kevin Moffatt, Jo Anna Pool, Sandra Chase Morrisey, Priscilla May Alden, Kristine Biegel, Jeanne Maguire and Dennis Douglass.

Don’t miss this show of large scale paintings, of ceramic and wood sculptures, fiber art, and mixed media.

ARTinME runs through Nov. 9 at Boothbay Region Art Foundation, 1 Townsend Ave. in downtown Boothbay Harbor. Gallery hours are Thursday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.