Teachers showcase Art in the Heart

BANGOR – The Art in the Heart exhibit featured in the Lecture Hall at Bangor Public Library this month showcases the talents of area art teachers.

While all of the offerings in the show are a credit to their creators and evoke admiration and interest, two outstanding paintings in the exhibit are “Atonement,” a watercolor, and “The Last Crossing,” an oil painting, both by Michael Vermette of the Indian Island School.

Vermette uses an impasto technique to create “The Last Crossing,” which gives the work a feeling of solidity that is sculptural in effect. His paintings are technically spectacular and beautiful to behold.

Helena Bosse of Milford offers her vision of summer in Bangor in her oil painting “Summer in West Market Square,” a work in vibrant colors that evokes the street cafes of Paris and Vienna.

Kal Elmore shows a group of digital photographs taken in China and several gelatin prints called “Deer Isle Morning 1” and “Deer Isle Morning 2.”

An untitled, acrylic portrait of a blond woman shows the deftness and skill of Deborah Jellison of the Mary Snow School.

Nancy Lloyd-Fitch homes in on the ephemeral quality of nature using circles as a focus in her work on paper, “Honeycomb,” “Lady Bug” and “Farmer’s Almanac.” She also has on exhibit “The Cost of Being Lost” and “Dreamland Shadows,” found-object sculpture incorporating twigs, a dried red rose, metal pieces, wire and beads assembled in small wooden boxes. These pieces call to mind a dollhouse gone awry, but in a charming way.

Courtney Harvey of Veazie Community School demonstrates in “Dice Head Light” what can be done with a graphite pencil in the hands of a skilled artist.

A group of polaroid emulsion prints by Sarah Tabor evoke delicate watercolors.

Edith Gronlie’s “Ancient Wings,” “Silent Feathers” and “Tropical Fragment,” acrylic on paper works, refer to the ancient deities of Egypt and, possibly, India.

Esther Taylor’s portraits, in prismacolor on paper, aren’t for the birds, they are the birds – an owl, eagle, chickens and a turkey.

A glowing purple botanical treat is “Pansies,” by Wendy Libby of Fruit Street School in Bangor.

Santa Claus is the subject of Randy Menninghaus’ folk art paintings on shaped wood – “Mason-Dixon Line Santa,” “Maine Woodland Santa” and “Siberian Santa.”

Jennifer Hawley introduces a note of “now-ness” with her op art watercolor “Abstract.” She also shows “Quilt Square” and “Bud Vase.”

A fanciful note comes by way of Jennifer Mishou’s paintings, “Statue of My Pelican” and “About Me.”

Angeli Perrow of Weatherbee School enlivens the exhibit with “Moving,” a painting in acrylic in tones of red.

Art in the Heart is an organization of area art teachers who are teaching, and have taught, thousands of students in central Maine. This is the third year members have exhibited at the library.