Depth of Field   Oil Paintings by Adele Drake     With saturated colors and a variety of brush strokes, Adele Drake depicts the structures of farms, fields and orchards. Drake sees drama and beauty in the relationship between the land and the organic farmer. In her paintings she reveals Organic Farming as a lifestyle, which involves fields, cows, chickens, machines, tools and manual labor. Drake is interested in the organizational systems such as rows, fences and posts and how they break up the space, creating rhythms and intervals.  These structures, which are designed with a functional purpose, shape our way of seeing and experiencing the landscape.  Bringing the organic farmers' land into focus is an endeavor, which yields a bushel of paintings.  All of these paintings succeed in giving us a powerful sense of presence and place.   Adele Drake received a Masters Degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1991 and has her art certification from the Moore College of Art.  Drake is an adjunct faculty member at Husson College and she has taught at Waterfall Arts. Recently, she was accepted into the I-95 Triennial Show at the University of Maine Museum of Art. While studying under Neil Welliver, she often combined aspects of performance and installation with painting, printmaking and sculpture. "Maine has shaped the direction of my work in surprising ways.  With my own unique voice and style, I have been content to create traditional oil paintings of what I see around me." She has been showing her work in Maine since moving here in 2002.

 
Hooves, Fur and Feathers

  

 

What do you think of when you hear the word "farm"? Do you think of the landscape, or perhaps the signature old barn? Do you think of fresh vegetables, or hay bales basking in the late afternoon sun?

 

In the minds of young people, the word "farm" always conjures up images of cows, pigs, chickens, horses, goats and sheep - and then of course not with the intent to eat them, but to play with them and pat them.

 

In honor of all farm animals and those who love them, Maine Farmland Trust Gallery will devote the month of June to a group show titled "Hooves, Fur and Feathers." This whimsical farm animal exhibit will feature works by five female artists from Maine: Elizabeth Fraser, Leslie Harris, Beth Henderson, Holly Meade and Willy Reddick.

 

Many of the art works on display by Leslie Harris and Holly Meade are works which have been created as illustrations for children's books. Leslie Harris, who lives on a farm herself, has a very playful way of portraying goats and chickens with her gelatin monoprints, which gives the animals an unmistakable personality. Holly Meade, well-known for her woodblock prints, renders bold portraits with strong lines - both of farm animals and other species that have made their home on the farm.  Many will recognize her artist's hand from the 2010 Common Ground Country Fair poster depicting a rooster.

 

Elizabeth Fraser, previously featured at Maine Farmland Trust gallery in the 2010 show "Guardians," is a spirited and disciplined daily painter and pet portrait artist from Portland, Maine. With her bright, bold use of color and expressive brush strokes, her paintings easily touch the viewer's heart and convey the beauty that surrounds us in our everyday world.

Says Fraser: "I am a huge animal lover--always have been!  When Maine Farmland Trust Gallery asked me to participate in this farm animal show, I just couldn't refuse. I love the spirit and sweetness of the animals and always enjoy a visit to a farm.  The animals I have chosen to paint are ones I have had the pleasure of petting, feeding or just hanging out with and those are moments that I cherish."

 

Fourth artist in this group show is Willy Reddick, one of the artists at another Belfast gallery, Aarhus. Reddick, too, has previously exhibited her white-line woodblock prints at the trust's Gallery. "It is not only the subject matter, but the delicate innocence that emanates from Willy's white-line woodblock prints that makes her work so fitting for this exhibit," says Anna Abaldo, gallery coordinator at Maine Farmland Trust.

 

The white line woodblock, or "Provincetown Print," developed in Provincetown, Mass in 1916, is a color woodcut in which the line drawing is cut into a single block. Gouache is applied with a brush, one area at a time; the attached paper is layed down and rubbed with a wooden spoon to print that area only, and so on. The result is a unique print with a painterly quality in which the line drawing remains strong and integral to the finished piece.

 

Reddick is well known for her meditative images of sleeping dogs and cats on busy, vibrant patterns and regularly exhibits in galleries and museums around New England. Her work is also in the collection of the New Bedford Whaling Museum as well as in countless private collections.

 

The final artist of five is Belfast's own Beth Henderson, an innovative sculptor who previously exhibited two-dimensional works as part of an exhibit on bees at Maine Farmland Trust, in 2009. This time, Henderson created a close-to-life sized cow, among other sculptures, which she blessed with no less than sixty names. And not just any names - she called around to several dairy farms in the area until she found a farmer willing to share the many names of his cows. Henderson explains: "It really completes my intention to honor the cows and the farmers who have named their dairy cows rather than just giving them numbers. Numbers, other than birthdays, ominous dates and the price of gas per gallon just don't stick with you!"

 

Dan Tibbetts from Windsor has about 125 "girls," as he likes to call his cows, and judging by Henderson's sculpture he has given them some pretty interesting names. "Some are in families," says Henderson, "such as the Baseball Family: Safe, Out, Bag, Plate, Fair, Dive, RBI, and Bench." Or how about Iraq, Al, and Quaida; or Taxes, Mortgage and Lien.

 

"Dan Tibbetts appears in one of the eight Meet Your Farmer films, produced by Maine Farmland Trust," says Abaldo, "and his wonderful sense of humor certainly makes it the clip that gets the most laughs from the audience. But at the same time, his personal connection with his animals is very apparent: he knows all his cows by name - he knows their mothers, their grandmothers, and all their health issues. He was the perfect dairy farmer to name Beth Henderson's cow. Because the whole focus of this exhibit is to show the individuality of our farm animals. Seeing these humorous and whimsical portraits, we are called to stop and consider for a moment the animals' own unique lives, and our relationship to them."
 

The opening of Hooves, Fur and Feathers will be held Friday June 3rd, 5:30-8, during the Belfast Art Walk. The show will be on display until July 18^th, 2011.

 

 

"Growing Stories" Exhibited at Maine Farmland Trust Gallery
Photos and Writing from "Of Farms and Fables" Theater Project

 

 

Belfast - What do you get when you put artists to work on a farm, and put farmers to work on stage? What you get is what you'll see at Maine Farmland Trust Gallery and the Belfast Free Library on Friday May 6th: Growing Stories - photographs and writing from the "Of Farms and Fables Project" by Claire Guyer, in collaboration with Open Waters Theatre Arts from Portland, ME.

The exhibit will open with an artist's reception at the Trust's Gallery from 4-6pm. At 6:30, the public is invited to join cast members from the "Of Farms and Fables" project at the Belfast Free Library for a reading from early drafts of the script. This work-in-progress presentation will include a Q&A opportunity for audience feedback.

Of Farms and Fables, a project of Open Waters Theatre Arts, combines the efforts of professional and non-professional artists by engaging artists in farm work and farm workers in storytelling and acting. The result will be an original performance in October of 2011 which will engage performers and audience in dialogue about local agriculture, farming, and the future of small family farms in Maine.

The photographic exhibit at Maine Farmland Trust Gallery documents the process of the artists and farmers involved. Says Claire Guyer, company manager and dramaturge for the "Of Farms and Fables" project, and the artist behind the camera: "The photos in this show represent my effort to document the work which my fellow artistic team members and I did over the course of the summer of 2010. In that twelve week period, our director, Jennie Hahn, playwright Cory Tamler, resident actor Keith Anctil, and myself worked on three small family owned farms: Broadturn Farm in Scarborough, Kay-Ben Farm in Gorham and WH Jordan Farm in Cape Elizabeth. That work, along with historical and general research regarding farming in Maine, group storytelling workshops with farmers and farm workers and individual interviews served as a basis for our upcoming full-scale original production."

For the exhibit, the resulting photographs have been combined with blog posts, personal journal entries and excerpts from early drafts of the original script written by company playwright Cory Tamler, to create an intimate look at the development of this innovative project.

The company has also begun preparations for their full-scale production scheduled for October, featuring the acting talents of many farmers and farm workers involved in the initial work exchange. In an effort to further engage audiences in the artistic process and start a dialogue about the future of small family farms in Southern Maine, local actors and company members will be staging readings of early drafts of the script, such as the one held May 6th at 6:30 at the Belfast Free Library.

Open Waters Theatre Arts is a community-based theater organization that focuses its efforts on social and economic issues relevant to a broad spectrum of Maine citizens.   Committed to enriching the performance culture of diverse communities across the State of Maine, Open Waters seeks to create opportunities for effective communication and cultural exchange through the production of theatrical events.  Open Waters has produced four public events since 2006, and has received support from the Maine Humanities Council, the Maine Arts Commission, and the Ella Lyman Cabot Trust.  

The Gallery is located at 97 Maine Street in Belfast and is open M-F, 9-4pm.

Growing Farms:
Images from Maine Farmland Trust Viability Program in Unity, Maine

 

Photographs by Hugh Chatfield

On Friday, March 25th from 5-7pm, Maine Farmland Trust Gallery will be welcoming the public for an opening reception of photography by Hugh Chatfield of Rockport and New York City.

This spring's first exhibit, Growing Farms, showcases images from Maine Farmland Trust's newest initiative, its Farm Viability Program, which at present is focusing on farmers in the area around the central-Maine town of Unity. 

Maine Farmland Trust's new Farm Viability Program is designed to help farmers succeed. It provides support through business planning and by creating new pieces of community infrastructure, such as an apple press or small-scale food processing facility. The initial work of the program is targeted at the greater Unity area, but a few activities are occurring elsewhere. The plan is to expand the program to other regions of the state over time. 

Chatfield's photos exhibit just some of the many farms being supported by this new program.  Subjects include a traditional dairy farm that has defined this area's agricultural community for decades, as well as small diversified farms that are part of fueling an expanding local foods economy.  Also on display are photos of local entities that play a critical role in the agricultural community, such as Johnny's Selected Seeds and the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA). 

Through the work of its Farm Viability Program, Maine Farmland Trust is continuing to call attention to the importance of maintaining productive farmland that is needed to support vibrant farms, as seen through Chatfield's photographs.

Hugh Chatfield, who lives in Manhattan part of the year and in Maine during the warmer months, had been offering his photographic talents to Maine Farmland Trust for a while. Finally, the perfect fit was found in documenting the Unity-area farmers working with the Trust. 

"Before arriving in Unity last summer, I had only known of it as the home of the Common Ground Fair," said Chatfield. "But I was struck by an inherent grace in the farmers associated with Maine Farmland Trust and this program. For them, it was a working day like any other, but for me, it was a privilege to find them in Maine's late summer light," explained Chatfield.   

Hugh Chatfield's father, Maine native Charles W Chatfield, gave Hugh his first camera at age thirteen in 1973. He later graduated from UCLA's Theater Division. In 1995, he left his career as an actor to become a professional photographer. He thinks of Maine as the last best place on earth.
 

Maine Farmland Trust is a statewide non-profit organization working to permanently preserve and protect Maine's agricultural lands, and to keep Maine's farms farming.
 
Maine Farmland Trust created its gallery to celebrate art in agriculture, and to inspire and inform visitors regarding the vibrancy of farming in Maine.  The gallery is located at 97 Main Street, Belfast ME, 04915 and is open on weekdays from 9-4. For more information visit www.mainefarmlandtrust.org.

Maine Agriculture:
Views from the Past

Photos from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection
Captions by Maine Historian William H. Bunting
Exhibit Produced by the Penobscot Marine Museum

Opening Reception on Friday, January 28, 2011 from 5-7pm
The show will be on display until March 21st.

HISTORIC PHOTOS OF MAINE AGRICULTURE ON DISPLAY

Maine Farmland Trust Gallery Hosts Exhibit of Long-Ago Farm Life

 

A new exhibit in Belfast will explore a bygone age of Maine's agriculture in photography dating from 75 to 100 years ago. "Maine Agriculture: Views From the Past" will be on display in the Maine Farmland Trust Gallery, 97 Main St., Belfast, from January 26 through March 21. An opening reception will be held Friday, January 28, 5:00 – 7:00 p.m.  The exhibit and reception are free to the public.

 

Included in the show are images of potato and dairy farming, the poultry industry, corn husking, canning operations, farm houses, fields, farm animals and farm people. Renowned Maine historian William H. Bunting conducted research for the exhibit and wrote the captions. The black-and-white images, shot originally on glass-plate negatives, are part of the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Company collection owned by Penobscot Marine Museum. The show is funded by a grant from the NLT Foundation.

 

"A century ago, agriculture was a highly visible component of the Maine landscape and a central element of its culture and economy," says historian Bunting. "Today it is nearly invisible in some parts of the state and its impact, while still significant, is recognized by few. This exhibit reminds us of the underpinning role that agriculture can play in a still-rural state like Maine."

 

Maine Farmland Trust is a statewide non-profit organization working to permanently preserve and protect Maine's agricultural lands, and to keep Maine's farms farming. Maine Farmland Trust created its gallery to celebrate art in agriculture, and to inspire and inform visitors regarding the vibrancy of farming in Maine. For more information visit www.mainefarmlandtrust.org.

 

Located on US Rte. 1 in Searsport, ME, between Camden, Bangor, and Mt. Desert Island, Penobscot Marine Museum is Maine's oldest maritime museum and home to outstanding collections of marine art and artifacts, small craft, ship models and historic photography. Its campus – including four ship captains’ homes, two boat houses, a town hall, a carriage house and other buildings – recreates a bustling coastal village during the Age of Sail. Exhibits are currently closed for the season, but special activities and presentations are scheduled year-round. For information about the Eastern Illustrating photo collection, or for information about the museum, visit www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org or call 207-548-2529.

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