Art center sprucing up for its 50th anniversary Maine artists’exhibition to kick off celebration

Going coastal

When I called the Center for Maine Contemporary Art in Rockport last week to see if I could sneak a peek at its coming show for ArtSeen, I was disappointed to hear that it wouldn’t be ready in time. The good news, curator Bruce Brown told me, is that the CMCA is getting a fresh coat of paint on its floors and walls. The other good news is that the show runs through March 2, so look for a review in next month’s Art Seen.

CMCA is kicking off its 50th anniversary year with an exhibition of work by artists Marvin “Red” Garner of Lincolnville and Barbara Rich Anderson of Camden, both former presidents of the CMCA board of directors, and Aviva Rahmani of Vinalhaven.

“Garner at 86: Pots and Paintings” combines two facets of the former SUNY-Potsdam professor’s career. His earlier work focused on ceramics, until 1987, when he turned his ceramics studio into a painting studio. Since then, he has been painting rich, abstract landscapes.

Rahmani’s installation, “If,” ties together art, science and policy. The works draw from a documentation of a salt-marsh restoration, called “Ghost Nets,” and “Cities and Oceans of If,” which presents solutions to water degradation. For more information, visit www.ghostnets.com.

In her first solo exhibition, “My Familiarities,” Anderson captures the meaningful people, places and objects in her life in and around Camden.

Anderson and Garner will discuss their work and their ties to CMCA at 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 9. Admission to the galleries is $2. For information, call 236-2875 or visit www.artsmaine.org.

Waxing poetic

Things got a little toasty last Saturday as Orono artist Ed Nadeau described his painting technique to a standing-room-only audience at the Clark House Gallery in Bangor. Not only were the guests tightly packed into one of the gallery’s exhibit spaces, but Nadeau had a hot plate fired up, ready to melt beeswax and resin to combine with pigment.

Nadeau was the sixth speaker in the gallery’s winter artist discussion series, which aims to educate collectors, students and the general public about various art techniques and to show artists’ recent work.

Though Nadeau also works in cold wax and oils, this talk focused on encaustic (or “burned-in”) painting. The hot, liquid wax-pigment mixture is used in the same manner as paint, but it dries almost immediately after it hits the surface. Once the initial painting is complete, it is fixed (or burned in) with a heat gun, melting the wax and leaving it malleable – so changes can be made – for about a minute.

Historically, the medium has been used to extend the life of a tube of paint. Jasper Johns tried it when he was a struggling young artist and liked it so much that he used it throughout his career. The technique results in a built-up, luminous, shiny surface that has a translucent sheen thanks to the wax. It also tends to preserve objects that are covered by the paint – the newspapers that Johns used to add texture to his paintings look the same today as they did 40 years ago.

While Nadeau passed around some examples of encaustic, several members of the all-ages crowd tried their hand at encaustic painting, including local artist Diana Young. Nadeau also showed some of his recent work, including a layered painting in which he scratched away paint to reveal a layer of graphite-pigmented paint. The resulting image is a marriage of vibrant paint and pencil-like, “guttural” drawings.

The next discussion is scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 5. Bangor art teacher Wendy Libby will talk about her two books, one a textbook for elementary school art teachers, the other a guide for parents to help nurture their children’s artistic creativity.

“We hope parents and grandparents can walk away with some cool ideas,” gallery owner Susan Maasch said.

Libby, who lives in Brewer, will also talk about getting her books published. For information, call the Clark House Gallery at 942-9162.

It’s electric

Orono native Syd Klinge was featured in the Jan. 6 edition of the Los Angeles Times Magazine for his marriage of art and science: 12-foot-tall, 35,000-watt sculpture of a Tesla Coil titled “Cauac.”

Developed by Croatian inventor Nikola Tesla, a Tesla Coil is basically a lightning machine – a way of transmitting huge amounts of electricity without wires. Los Angeles Times reporter Andrew Vontz writes, “Tesla’s coil is a transformer that resembles a coil-topped mushroom and emits a lightning storm of electrical arcs, accompanied by a roaring sizzle of electricity.”

Klinge told the L.A. Times his interest in electricity started when his father, a University of Maine professor, asked him to wire the house. He was 6.

Now he’s 39 and calls Hollywood home. He does acting and film work, but his interests haven’t changed too much.

“I’m incredibly drawn to how magical and organic and primitive the arcs are,” Klinge told the Los Angeles Times. “Although the result is simple, the science is some pretty inspired physics.”