There must be something about the salted air, high levels of negative ions, and the natural beauty surrounding the Boothbay Harbor region that attracts visitors year after year, decade after decade.
Plein air artists are drawn here by the light in the sky over in Maine; studio artists as well, but the plein air artist in particular. If you happen to be driving by, say Ocean Point, while visiting here and you see an artist or two outside working and ask them what jazzes them most they will, more often than not, tell you it’s the light in a Maine sky. And for those outdoor/plein air artists, the experience is transcendental. Artist Kathleen Billis expressed it perfectly in a 2013 interview with the Boothbay Register: “If you are used to painting outside, it’s a whole different way of painting, a whole different lifestyle, Outdoors you’re in a completely different dimension. You’re lost in the moment, vibrating with nature…You just get into this zone. All artists, musicians, writers get into a zone).”
The art galleries in Boothbay Harbor and Boothbay should be on every visitor’s itinerary. No two art galleries are alike. Some are owned by the artist(s) like Lynne and John Seitzer’s Joy to the Wind or Dick MacDonald’s McDonald’s Stained Glass, Heidi Seidelhuber and Terry Seaman at Studio 53, or Jill and John Butke of The Butke Studio.
Art of all styles and in all media can be found here: Abstract, abstract impressionism, realism, impressionism, mixed media, glass, fantasy, assemblage, surrealism; oils, watercolor, pastels, gouache, acrylics, charcoal, pen and ink; ceramics, wood, pottery, photography, netting, printmaking; textile and fabric arts including weaving and painting on clothing canvases, felting, quilting and sculpture – whether the larger than life granite or marble sculptures of the Boothbay Harbor Region Sculpture Trail or in galleries.
Galleries: Intown Boothbay Harbor: Ae Ceramics/Alison Evans, Studio 53, Gleason Fine Art, Abacus, Boothbay Region Art Foundation, Gold/Smith Gallery, Black River Gallery, Ed Brown’s Wharfside Gallery; on the East Side (across the footbridge or by car) you’ll find Joy to the Wind Gallery, Villard Studios; with MacDonald Stained Glass just a short drive away. While you’re in the car, drive out to East Boothbay and check out Kerr+Jones Fine Art. There’s Mathias Fine Art in Trevett and, on your way back to Boothbay or Boothbay Harbor, after you go over the bridge, follow the signs to Isle of Springs and Butke Studio. In Boothbay, there’s Morgan Mitchell’s studio/gallery in the Old Firehouse; in Edgecombon Route 27 is Downeast Gallery/Brad Betts. And in Wiscasset: Maine Art Gallery, Wiscasset Bay Gallery, Sylvan Gallery, and Ingram Art & Antiques.
In summer both Boothbay Harbor and Wiscasset hold monthly art celebrations; First Friday in the Harbor (held the first Friday of each month), and the Wiscasset Art Walk (www.wiscassetartwalk.org) held the fourth Thursday of June-September. Meet artists, enjoy appetizers and beverages. And talk art!