The Boothbay Harbor branch of First Federal Savings & Loan is exhibiting the colorful abstract oil paintings of Damariscotta artist Polly Steadman. The exhibit is co-sponsored by the Boothbay Region Art Foundation, of which Steadman has been a member for many years — dating back to The Brick House Gallery days!

Steadman’s free-flowing oil paintings are the result of over 20 years of honing a wet-on-wet technique that is spontaneous, colorful and often thought-provoking for the viewer. She prefers this approach to her previous style that was, in her words, “a failed attempt to realistically capture what I saw,” as her early paintings were relatively stiff and colorless. Branch Manager Jean Huber has an example of Steadman’s earlier work hanging in her office.

Steadman claims that she didn’t used to appreciate much abstract art, and still doesn’t, although the satisfaction with her own experience has expanded her consciousness of all art as well as empathy with individual artists. Almost by chance she learned the “wet-on-wet” technique, which appealed to her partly because an entire oil painting is completed in one session, instead of the painstaking months it had taken her to finish one canvas.

 Because her technique is all about the blending of the oil colors, the brushstrokes may be long and strong or short, light and quick. As the composition, unplanned at the outset, takes shape and the paint sets up, themes and forms emerge on the canvas.

“When I can, somehow, blend the paint into and over the colors while seas and skies and magic planes emerge, it excites me,” Steadman said. “There is a point, after an hour or two, when the oil paint sets itself up to be able to be pulled over the under color, and when the refinement of composition and color begin. And that’s when the real excitement begins for me."

Among the Maine artists she credits with her artistic growth and direction are Lou Page, formerly of Mouse Island, Fred Kellogg of Thomaston, and Jean Harris of Damariscotta.

Steadman’s work has been shown in many Midcoast gallery exhibitions, solo shows in Maine and New Hampshire galleries, as well as installations in offices, restaurants, retirement homes and private homes.

“What used to be a pleasant pastime has become a passion I love to share. I look forward to grabbing a canvas and just doing it. The experience is the pleasure, and if I complete a frameable piece, so much the better: it can go out into the world and perhaps lead someone else to experiment with just doing,” Steadman said.

Let your curiosity lead you to view her work at First Federal Savings, located at 41 Townsend Avenue, during the bank’s business hours, through mid-September.