Guest artists enrich the Wiscasset Art Walk Aug. 27

Luminarium Dance Co. and Married with Chitlins perform on the sidewalks
Wed, 08/26/2015 - 12:30pm

The sidewalks of the village will be pulsing with music and dance during the Wiscasset Art Walk from 5-8 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 27.

Boston’s Luminarium Dance Co. will entertain visitors with members’ spontaneous dance moves, playfulness and theatricality, as acclaimed strolling sidewalk musicians, Married with Chitlins, play their own versions of traditional country tunes.

Guest artists will be in residence for the evening in several galleries, and gallery musicians, wine tasting, shopping, and champagne fill out the evening. Park your car and explore the village during art walk night.

Sylvan Gallery, 49 Water Street, hosts photographer Nina Fuller who is “Celebrating the Year of the Sheep,” with a collection of her visually compelling photographs. Fuller focuses on the Scottish blackface sheep she raises on her farm in Hollis. Fuller’s photographic images are personal and sensitive.

Ingram Fine Art & Antiques, 106 Main Street, hosts an exhibition featuring Maine artist Ronald Frontin with work in oils and watercolors. Frontin is a contemporary painter who continues the American realist tradition of Winslow Homer and Thomas Eakins with his fastidiously rendered figural images set on the coast and in the countryside.

His subjects include the hardworking fisherman and farmers of Maine, and his family and friends. His paintings convey respect for the grueling and absorbing tasks of outdoor life and capture the particular light and mood of the Maine landscape.

Moulinette Mercantile, 60 Main Street, has invited photographer Anna Shaw to display her intriguing photos. According to Shaw, who will be on hand during the art walk, she works digitally, no darkroom involved, to create “archivally processed black and white gelatin silver prints which have been treated with multiple toners to make them split between two colors.” Some photos are documentary, others are abstract and ethereal.

The Maine Art Gallery, 15 Warren Street, exhibits “Capturing Maine: Photographs from the Collection of Historic New England.” As part of the Maine Photo Project, this exhibition takes audiences on a wonderful tour of Maine from the mid-19th century through the 20th. These photographs capture moments that illuminate the state's spectacular scenery, life on the coast, industrial and agricultural history, summer tourists at play, residents at work, and other activities.

The Wiscasset Bay Gallery’s current exhibit at 67 Main Street, “Belgian, French, Dutch and American Impressionism,” offers Impressionist views of the Netherlands, Paris, and New York alongside views of Venice and the French countryside.

French & Co., 8 Federal Street, shows off a newly acquired Georgian Rosewood open bookcase. The classic lines and brass details of this 18th century piece give it a sleek, sophisticated, almost modern look. Several small French landscape oil paintings will be offered at 20 percent off only during the art walk. Next door, at Wiscasset’s newest gallery, WBG Modern and Contemporary, explore the collection of mid-century paintings, taxidermy assemblages, and surrealist photography. According to the photographer, Keith Hamilton, “Narratives are intentionally open-ended and invite the viewer to participate in the story.”

The art walks are held on the last Thursday of the summer months. For more information about participating in Wiscasset Art Walk as an artist, performer, volunteer, or sponsor, contact event coordinators Lucia Droby at ludroby@verizon.netor Violet Brandwein at 917-327-1449.