Sylvan Gallery in Wiscasset is hosting artists’ Neal Hughes and Crista Pisano for the fourth exhibition of their work through Sept. 8. A reception to meet the artists is from 4-7 p.
m. Thursday, Aug. 29, coinciding with Wiscasset Art Walk.
After a long winter, Hughes and Pisano began the spring by traveling extensively to many of the most prestigious plein air competitions in the country that are renowned for the high quality of artistic talent that they attract. A selection of Hughes’ and Pisano’s paintings from this year’s plein air events will be on view from such states as Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania and Michigan, as well as from their favorite painting locations along the Maine coast. Coastal subjects and working waterfronts inspire much of Hughes’ work in the Sylvan Gallery exhibition.
“Lightkeeper’s House – Marshall Point,” 20-by-20 inches, won Hughes his first award this year. Impressionistically painted, the front façade of the sunlit building contrasts beautifully with the cool tones of the blue-violet shadowed side of the building, the gallery said in a prepared release. The rich greens of foreground foliage is dotted with late summer flowers.
The viewpoint is from the rocks looking up at the structure enabling Hughes to juxtapose the building against the darker pine trees. The rocks are captured in a full spectrum of colors from blues to violets, golds and roses, and, with a combination of brush and palette knife work,.