Becton digital montage weaves media

Jeffery Becton, digital montage, through July at the Clark House Gallery, 128 Hammond St., Bangor. 924-9162.

The first time I saw Jeffery Becton’s work, it wasn’t in a gallery. It was on the jacket of Beth Gutcheon’s novel “More than You Know” and I became as mesmerized by the stark scene as I was by the text.

The feeling resurfaced while viewing Becton’s digital montages on the walls of the Clark House Gallery. He weaves together elements of photography, painting and digital imagery in a rich tapestry that is at once soothing and unsettling.

There is a sense of suspended belief with Becton’s work, particularly “On the Cusp,” in which a bedroom door opens onto the ocean. There’s no front lawn here. No beach. Just choppy water. You have to keep reminding yourself that this isn’t reality, even though the images are so clear and rendered in such exquisite detail.

Perhaps that is the most jarring part of his images. But there’s an undercurrent of loneliness there as well – whispers of the past and the silence of words left unsaid. In the black-and-white piece “Unforgiven,” a pair of twin beds sit empty against a shadowy wall, but the wall isn’t a wall, per se – it’s a bank of roiling clouds. It begs the viewer to ask why the beds are empty, and perhaps more important, what sin is not forgiven.

Becton takes domestic iconography – the family homestead, patches of old-fashioned wallpaper, a boot-filled mudroom, peeling clapboards, or a dining-room table polished to a mirrorlike sheen – and creates a visual narrative that is both familiar and foreign. The story is captivating, and the images are even more so.

Joanne Wilson, “Point of View,” June 23-July 25 at Elan Fine Arts, 8 Elm St., Rockland. 596-9933 or www.elanfinearts.com. An artist’s reception will take place from 5:30 to 8 p.m. June 23.

If you can’t swing a spa visit this summer, Elan Fine Arts has all the serenity you’ll need with Joanne Wilson’s landscapes.

Her tranquil, atmospheric oils are quietly powerful. In a tiny postcard of a painting, a slender tree leans from a rocky outcropping, stretching its branches toward the sea. In another, larger painting, a group of trees huddle together in a mass of green darkness as day fades into night, while fog settles in the background.

“I’m drawn to places where I feel a response to the land, the sea and the sky,” Wilson writes in her artist’s statement. “It’s the subtle mood of the place that moves me to attempt to suggest in my work the underlying spirit of the place.”

She captures that spirit masterfully, with a subtle hand and a clear sense of where she’s going. Her paintings beckon you to join her on the journey.

Art notes

. Faith Fay, a Maine native who now lives in Honolulu, returns to Bar Harbor’s Native Arts gallery with her “Powwow Series.” Her work was on display there in a striking 2001 show that merged elements from nature with images of the human body. She follows that up with a series of photographs of American Indian dancers in full regalia. Native Arts is located at 99 Main St. in Bar Harbor. For information, call 288-1091.

. Looking for a family-friendly art excursion? Visit the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, where selected illustrations by Barbara Cooney are on view. The small exhibit features original images from her children’s books “Miss Rumphius,” “Island Boy” and “Hattie and the Waves.” The gallery is located on the Bowdoin College campus in Brunswick. For information, call 725-3275 or visit www.bowdoin.edu/artmuseum.

. The Tides Institute and Museum of Art in Eastport will unveil its new acquisitions in an exhibition that begins Friday, June 25. Among the highlights are “Grand Manan,” an acrylic on canvas by John Doyle. An opening reception will take place from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday. The Tides Institute is located at 43 Water St. For information, call 853-4047 or visit www.tidesinstitute.org.