Meanderings of a Maine Artist... sculptor Cynthia Smith - C.V.SmithARTWORKS

Something Fishy at Saltwater in 2025 ... A Relief!

3/16/2025

It's that time of year again - gearing up for opening day of the 2025 art season at Saltwater Artists Gallery in New Harbor on May 23rd. For my part I am finishing up some new work and organizing an inventory of which pieces I will be showing and planning how I intend to set them up in my display area. As for the gallery members, we elected a slate new officers and a new Board of Directors over the off-season and look forward to their leadership and new ideas for the future for the gallery. Visitors may notice a few changes to the layout of the gallery entry space, and in addition to our annual Plein Air Day event, we will also be hosting some new shows during the season, including a kids' art show and couple more special shows!

Hydrocal plaster casting

Painted casting

 I recently finished a plaster relief piece that I will be showing this year. I hadn't made a fish relief in a couple of years and got the urge to revisit the casting process. It went smoothly and I was happy with the result. As in the past, I painted it with graphite gray acrylic paint , double matted it and then framed it. I have to admit that one reason I avoided going back to the fish relief was that the matting process can be very challenging. It is very difficult to cut the opening for the relief in the red undermat so that it fits snugly around the plaster. (I am somewhat of a "perfectionist" when it comes to things like this, so any kind of gap is definitely unacceptable.) Luckily for me, the stars were aligned just right in this instance and I managed to cut the mat in a perfect fit on the 1st attempt! "Eyes on the Prize" is ready for hanging!

"Eyes on the Prize " .... 10"x10" framed

Saltwater Artists Gallery ... 2024 Art Season in Maine

9/14/2024

It seems like just yesterday that I was setting up my display area at Saltwater Artists Gallery in New Harbor at the beginning of the season, but somehow the summer art season has flown by and we are soon looking at our end of the season closing date in mid-October. It was a great year getting to know the 5 new artists that were juried into the gallery this season - Wishbone Clay potter Stephanie Haynes, and painters Barbara Coburn, Ericka O'Rourke, J.C. Airoldi, and Katie Bubier ...all great additions to our talented group of 25 member artists.

...setting up for the start of the season in May

...my display area for the 2024 season

The Maine Tasting Center in Wiscasset hosted our satellite gallery again this season and it will be hanging through the end of October. I have 2 sculptures in the show - "Le Fromage Redux" and "Le Fromage". The Center will also be offering a a special tasing event that will pair food and drink with our Maine food themed artwork. The event will take place on October 17th from 5:30 -7:30pm. For more information you can go to the "Pop-Up Dinners" section under the Classes Event Calendar at www.mainetastingcenter.com .

Le Fromage Redux

Le Fromage

Over 25 artists from the New England area participated in our 2nd annual "Paint the Point"

Plein Air Event in July, spending the day painting in the beautiful area around Pemaquid Lighthouse Park. Award winning painter and illustrator,Charles Adkins served was juror for this year's event and presented awards at the ceremony at the end of the day. $500 of the day's proceeds were donated to the Bristol Parks and Recreation Department's recovery and rebuilding efforts following the past winter's heavy storm damage. We are very grateful to our sponsors: The Seagull Restaurant; Rising Tide Co-Op, Citizen Maine Home; and Beal House.

The next event coming up will be the Maine Craft Weekend on Oct. 5th&6th. It is the annual statewide tour of Maine craft studios, businesses, and events. Visitors can visit Saltwater and see jewelry by Lynne Thompson and Doreen Reynolds, glass art by Pam Wilcox and Janet Lockhart, woodturnings by Tom Raymond, mosaics by Pat Higgins, fiber art by Cathie Stebbins, and ceramic wares by Stephanie Haynes. More information about the weekend can be found at mainecraftweekend.org .
The popularity of our gallery and the loyalty of our friends and patrons shone through again this year as the readers of Down East magazine selected Saltwater Artists as "Best of Maine " Art Gallery for the second year in a row! Thanks to all!

Down East Best of Maine ... Caps Off SWAG's 2023 Season

10/24/2023

Saltwater Artists Gallery in New Harbor, Maine completed another successful show season that included 2 new ventures and ended with statewide recognition. Our first annual plein air "Paint the Point" event was enthusiastically received by all of the participating artists, as well as by the event's juror, highly regarded artist J.C. Airoldi. We were grateful for the support our event sponsors: the Seagull Restaurant, Citizen Home Maine and Weatherbird Bakehouse, and for the help of all of our event volunteers. We are looking forward to the 2nd annual in 2024!
The gallery was very excited to be able to expand
our mid-coast presence this summer with the opening of a satellite gallery in the newly renovated Discovery Room at the Maine Tasting Center in Wiscasset. In keeping with the food and drink offerings of the MTC, our venue featured food themed artwork by SWAG gallery members. After lots of positive "feed-back", we will return in '24.

Painting plein air on Pemaquid Point

SWAG satellite gallery at The Maine Tasting Center in Wiscasett

And last, but not least - the results of Down East magazine's "Best of Maine" poll were published in their September issue, and revealed that Saltwater Artists Gallery had been voted #1 in the Art Gallery category. We are very proud of all of our talented artists and very grateful to all of our incredibly supportive patrons! See you next season!

Saltwater Artists Gallery ... Open for the Season

6/2/2023

My display area at SWAG

 Saltwater Artists Gallery in New Harbor, Maine opened for the 2023 season on Memorial Day weekend. I'll be be taking my first shift sitting the gallery on Monday, June 5th. It's always great to come back and see all of the work my fellow SWAG artists have set up in their display areas. I am especially interested to see the work of the four new artists we have joining us this season.
Last year the gallery had an informal Plein Air event that just included some of our member painters. The day went well and created quite a bit of interest among fellow painters, customers, and passers-by. As a result, plans were made to hold a Plein Air "Paint the Point" event this season that would be open to area artists. The day will start at 8:30am with an artists' breakfast hosted by the Seagull Restaurant and end with an awards ceremony at 4:30pm and a "wet paint" sale. Artists will have the day to paint in the iconic area around Pemaquid Point and the Pemaquid

Pemaquid Lighthouse - photo by A. Greatorex

Lighthouse. More information about the July 22nd event, as well as registration for the event, can be found on the gallery website www.saltwaterartists.com.

Saltwater Artists Gallery '23 ... Maine Artists

5/12/2023

It's that time of year again...the members of Saltwater Artists Gallery are getting the gallery ready inside and out for the upcoming show season. We will be open long weekends starting May 26th and then seven days a week starting June 16th.
Four new members have been juried in for the 2023 season...encaustic painter Victoria Curtis whose subject matter is primarily land and seascapes; potter Julie Oliver who works out of her Kennebec Pottery studio in Belgrade; jeweler Doreen Reynolds who makes wearable art and jewelry using a wide variety of media; and oil painter Rachel Hendrick, who paints primarily in oils and gets inspiration from the flora and fauna of Maine.
I have been busy organizing the pieces that I will be putting in my display area at the gallery. I recently made two of the fish-themed plaster reliefs that have been so well received in past seasons. It's always interesting challenge to try to choose an effective combination of wall and pedestal pieces. No doubt there will be a bit of last minute tweaking to my arrangement before the door opens on May 26th!

Come Here Often?

The Gang's All Here

Oscar Wilde versus the Chicken or the Egg

2/9/2023

Fellow Saltwater artist Pat Higgins recently emailed me a photo snails on a vertical rock formation because they reminded her of my gallery display of snail magnets (see my blog post from 9/17/19). Oscar Wilde once said "Life imitates art far more than art imitates life..." but I certainly think there is an equally valid argument to be made for the opposite sentiment. I know that after first coming up with the idea of creating snail magnets, I then had to figure out a way to effectively display them. A memory from my youth (and that is going back some!) of periwinkle snails attached to pier pilings came to mind and I was able to recreate a version of that image by attaching two short lengths of old cedar post to a length of weathered board. Finished snails could then be affixed to small magnets that had been imbedded in each post resulting in an appealing, and somewhat life-like, presentation. As for Mr. Wilde's observation regarding life and art, I think that, in the end, it may come down to the same conundrum as in the "chicken and the egg" debate. As for the snail magnet display, I keep having to replace the snails, so it would seem that visitors to the gallery relate to this creation resulting from a childhood memory.

Saltwater Artists Gallery '22 ... DownEast Best of Maine

10/26/2022

The 2022 show season has come to a close for Saltwater Artists Gallery. Our last day was Saturday, October 15th. It was a successful season with many returning customers, as well as many new ones. We were very proud to have been voted a finalist in DownEast magazine's Readers' Choice Best of Maine Art Gallery category.
Also of note during the 2022 season...new members Nicole Nappi (painter) and Beth Thompson (jeweler), proved to be a perfect fit to the gallery...in August four of our members, Mark Malinowski, Carol Ast, Scott White, and Bob Schilke held a successful 1st annual Plein Air Day, painting in the area around the gallery and Pemaquid Point... and stained glass artist Janet Lockhart organized a fundraiser at the gallery in support of Ukraine, raising over $3,000 to be donated to the World Central Kitchen and Save the Children.
 We will be keeping our customers up to date on member activities during the off-season via our Gallery newsletter and we look forward to opening day on Memorial weekend of 2023.

...my display area at Saltwater for 2022

Hope in the Window ... Reincarnated, Framed, and Planted

5/28/2022

Painting & backing board

I would never claim to be a painter, but I do have a few paintings remaining from college classes that I took many years ago. I recently un-earthed a 13"x16" section that I had excised from one of those paintings (I had "liberated" what I felt was the more interesting portion of a larger composition). As is often the case for me, this kind of rediscovery can be the impetus for a "reincarnation". In my mind I immediately pictured this image of a woman peering out of a small window. The proportions of the woman and her apparent proximity to the window would make her look larger and the window look smaller. I also wanted something on the sill - perhaps a small flower pot containing a seedling?

I began this piece by adhering the painting to a 1/4" thick piece of birch plywood so that I would be able to mount it in the to-be-constructed window frame and to insure that the canvas wouldn't distort over time. I then proceeded to construct a small window that included a recess on the back side where the painting could be attached with small screws. I painted the window an off-white, and, before installing the painting, I painted out the partial image of a second figure that could be seen over the left shoulder of the woman in the foreground.

"Window" constructed & painted

Back side - showing inset

Painting edited & mounted

The next step was to tackle the potted plant for the sill. I had a 3" terra cotta seedling pot that was a perfect size for what I had in mind, but it was "new", so I "aged" it using acrylic paint. I wanted to attach the pot with a bolt rather than simply epoxying it to the sill. I put a 1/4 thick layer of Apoxie clay in the bottom of the cup to prevent the pot from cracking when the bolt was tightened, and then drilled a hole through it after it hardened. I then drilled a hole in the sill and made sure that the pot would screw into it securely. I was ready to "plant".

Seedling pot - before & after "aging"

Attachment set-up

Styrofoam "plug"

...planted

To create the illusion of a dirt-filled pot, I first fashioned a slightly tapered cylinder of styrofoam that fit into the pot. I coated the top of the styrofoam plug with a 1/4" thick layer of Apoxie clay, and textured the clay to look like dirt. After the Apoxie clay hardened, I used acrylics to paint it a "dirt" color and then epoxied the cylinder into the pot. The final step was to drill 2 holes so that I could "plant" 2 very small (plastic) flowers and then screw the pot into the sill. C'est fini!
(P.S. I generally have some sort of internal narrative or back story to most of my work, and the title "Hope in the Window" for this piece came from my dismay over the war in Ukraine and my hope that good will triumph over evil .)

"Hope in the Window" ....complete

Midsummer Night's Dream ... Mask Sculpture for River Arts

5/1/2022

As the May 7th deadline for the upcoming "Wild Things" show at River Arts Gallery in Damariscotta approached, I consulted my inventory of potential sculpture submission pieces. The piece that jumped out as most appropriate for the theme was a mask that I had done a number of years ago. It featured the face of a character that had a jester-like appearance with wild hair, a broad collar with bells, and large donkey-like ears... and, with a little tweak, would fit the bill.

Mold ... gessoed mask ... plaster cast

Front view

Detail

Detail

Back view

The original process for making the mask had first involved making a life-mold of my face and then making a plaster cast from that mold. The cast was covered with plastic wrap and then then draped with artificial chamois cloth that had been dipped into a mixture of wheat paste and wood glue (1/5 ratio). Once the chamois dried it was trimmed into the desired shape. I added ears cut from sheets of backed gray felt, then coated the mask and the felt backing with gesso. After attaching the mask to a dowel and sealing the inside of the mask with a thin handmade paper that had pieces of natural grasses imbedded in it, I tinted the face with color and added leather eyebrows and thin strips of leather for the hair. Finally I attached the small bells on wires to grommets I had placed along the edge of the mask collar. Ready for fun and frolic.
In order to show the mask to best advantage at the River Arts show, I wanted to mount it on a stand, but I still wanted to be able to preserve its integrity as a usable mask. To this end, I drilled a hole in the end of the handle so that the mask could be placed on a base for display, but could be easily removed, if so desired. I made a base out from a 6" x 6" x 3" block of sapele wood. I sanded and sealed the base with satin poly and then added a short 1/4" metal rod.
"Midsummer Night's Dream" was now ready for show!

Base

Midsummer Night's Dream

Underwater Landscaping ... Deep Sea Diver Upgrade

12/28/2021

Original "Deep Sea Diver"

Recent downtime found me taking a second look at a sculpture titled "Deep Sea Diver" that I made last spring (see blog entry for 4/29/21). I felt that the support rod took away from the desired visual impact of the "dive" concept of the piece. The question was - how to hide or obscure the rod and not the "diver". I think I knew the answer before I asked the question... that I might be able to incorporate some leftover pieces of twisted bark that I had used in the making of my bronze sculpture "Lucky Seven" (see my blog posts for 4/22/16 & 7/18/16). Bingo!
As I experimented with the placement of several of the bark strips, I found that the curved ends of the strips would curl closely around both the bottom of the rod and the body of the "diver". The next step was to figure out how to attach the strips securely.

Testing

First 2 insertion holes

Attachment pins

2 attached

Attaching the strips involved using my Dremel to create insertion holes for the ends of each strip in the driftwood base. I also added a small metal pin into the edge of each strip at the point where the edge of the strip actually touched the body of the "Diver". I drilled holes to receive the pins in the body and then epoxied each strip end and pin into their respective holes. I further secured the strips by adding a toothpick "pin" through overlapping flat areas of the strips. In addition to the 3 long strips that I attached around the rod, I also added 2 shorter strips about an inch further behind the base of the rod to further enhance the flow and effectiveness of the composition. I feel the addition of the "landscaping" added to the illusion of motion and of being underwater...and, even better, added a sense of playfulness. :)