As a program of the Island Institute, Archipelago gives artists and island-inspired art and craft a mainland venue. Here is a small sampling of our many artists from the Casco Bay region.
For over 20 years, Gail Miller at Miller Designs on Chebeague has been hand crafting metal jewelry including earrings, pins, barrettes and napkin rings, from brass, copper and nickel. Each piece starts by cutting sheet metal to rough size. Then a die is chosen, the sheet metal is inserted, placed in the hydraulic press, and cut. The piece is then trimmed, filed and polished. Gail is constantly creating new designs to keep her loyal customer base enthusiastic about her jewelry.
Rick Boyd and Pamela Williamson are partners in creating fine craft. At their studio on Peaks Island, Rick creates the forms-vases, bowls and lidded jars-and Pamela glazes them with extraordinary colors and various sheens. This partnership yields amazing vessels that are both functional as well as beautiful, simple and classic. “Pottery is a marriage of art and science,” says Rick.
Nance Trueworthy from Portland started making jewelry in the wintertime to occupy herself when making landscape photographs in Maine is a bit more challenging. She uses pearls and semi-precious stones to create one-of-a-kind pieces of jewelry inspired by the beauty of the natural world. Nance hand selects all of the materials, choosing pearls with beautiful luster and gemstones with superior color and texture. Each piece carries the wonderful energy of the earth and the sea.
At Seaweed Studios in Portland, Angus MacPhail is busy throwing flower pots and making tiles one by one for his intricate mosaics. His flower pots, made of terra cotta, are unique in form and content, and are collected by many a gardener. His mosaics grace the tops of tables and benches assembled from driftwood, barn board and other woods with history. The tiles are usually beach inspired-crabs, lobsters, boats, the sun-all combining glorious colors.
Recently featured in Coastal Living magazine, CHART metalworks offers a very unique line of jewelry and personal decoration. Charlotte Leavitt uses charts to feature coastal, island and ocean locales as part of her wearable art. Made from bronze and sterling, the necklaces, earrings, cufflinks, belt buckles and more are a great way to carry a favorite spot with you wherever you go-either on land or at sea.
It’s fitting that Alison Bramhall of Festive Fish in Yarmouth built her business by painting brightly colored maps of the coast of Maine. She grew up in Portland sailing the coast with her family and now explores the inlets intimately via kayak. Her maps are bold, vibrant, and show her joy of life and deep connection to Maine.
Portland Glassblowing owner and artist Ben Coombs, a native of Woolwich, is highly respected in the glassblowing community and has made a name for himself with his nautical-inspired glass, including lobster buoys. The colors he chooses for the buoys are just as creative as those found all along Maine’s coast.
Towanda Brown grew up in Maine and spent summers retreating to the beaches and coves of Long Island. She uses a variety of found objects, including beach rope, jute and wire, along with natural seagrass, vines, shells, sea glass and reeds to create her baskets. Beachcombing is a vital part of her artistic process: “For me, a walk on the beach is an exciting exploration in nature, art, and self. My love of weaving, combined with my love of beachcombing, has resulted in a series of Island Baskets.”
Clint Jones has many skills-boat and car mechanic, fisherman and metal sculptor. His passion is sculpting but his art is clearly inspired by his other two occupations. Working in his barn in Cumberland, he uses a torch to forge herons, puffins, boats and so much more, out of metals. He has been doing this for over 45 years, since the age of 13 when he got his first torch. Some sculptures find their way to Chebeague where Clint has a family home. The movement and expression of his pieces greet visitors and islanders with their enduring and beautiful spirit.
The delicate and highly detailed watercolor paintings of Mimi Gregoire Carpenter have been termed “tide-pool art” in reference to her subjects-starfish, mussels, razor clams, seaweed and periwinkles. Combing Goose Rocks Beach for inspiration, she spends significant time observing her subjects and then later paints from memory. Mimi’s studio in Biddeford shows the range of how her subjects relate to one another. Sometimes there is a lone starfish as if in a portrait and other times there is a veritable beach spilling over the mat in a larger painting. Either way, her love of ocean and Maine comes across clearly.