Secret gardens, hideaways, fantastic worlds, the wilderness - there is magic that surrounds us betwixt and between. From the depths of the deepest ocean to forgotten corners of our imagination. Enchanted Spaces is on view at the KAA from October 24th - November 17th, 2024. Opening Reception: Friday, October 25th from 5-7pm

Also On View: Works by Spotlight Artist Adam Krauss

Adam Krauss is an abstract expressionist painter from Lee with heartfelt connections across the seacoast, tracing paths from Boston to points south. As a high school teacher and former journalist, Adam has long navigated the realms of words and ideas, but it is within the visual world—where color and motion converge—that he finds his true dwelling. Here, in the vibrant interplay of hue and form, he explores the limits and possibilities of human experience.

His latest series, "The Search for Space," delves into the enchanting confines and contours that shape our existence. This body of work is a meditation on the ways we carve out meaning, how we define our place in the world, and the invisible lines that govern our journey through time. Each piece is a reflection of his fascination with the tension between the seen and the unseen, the eternal quest for something beyond the tangible, and the moments where the pursuit of space becomes the pursuit of self.
In these works, Adam captures the essence of movement—both physical and emotional—as he pushes the boundaries of abstraction to evoke the fluidity of life itself. His use of bold, sweeping gestures and a palette that oscillates between the serene and the chaotic, invites viewers to lose themselves in the layers, to contemplate the spaces in between, and to find their own stories within the abstract landscapes he creates.

Art Intake for Exhibiting Members: Monday, October 21st from 2-6pm in the gallery. Please read our 2024 All Member Exhibit submission guidelines and download your artist contract here: www.kitteryartassociation.org/submission-guidelines

Ego and creativity is often a jagged line. Join us, as we present a collection of our artists’ triumphs in Personal Favorites. September 19th through October 20th at The Kittery Art Association. Opening Reception: Friday, September 20th from 5-7pm.

Also On View: Works by Spotlight Artist Jack Calabrese

Jack Calabrese: “My journey as an artist began approximately ten years ago as a 'bucket list' comment I made that my wife took hold of and ran with. The inspiration was inside of me and her thoughtful action set my creative outlet into motion.

Like many beginning painters, I was largely ignorant of the fundamental aspects of painting. I learned through instructional books, videos, workshops, a lot of easel time, and a lot of failed paintings. I've come to understand that painting is a lifelong lesson in humility, yet I've grown to love the process and how it makes me view the world through a different lens.”

Art Intake for Exhibiting Members: Monday, September 16th from 2-6pm in the gallery. Please read our 2024 All Member Exhibit submission guidelines and download your artist contract here: www.kitteryartassociation.org/submission-guidelines

Dreams exist in nocturne, and a change in light ushers in a new perspective. The study of light is critical to artists, poets, and philosophers. There are spirits that awaken in the dawn, and as the light dims at the end of day. Join us for Dawn Dusk Darkness at The Kittery Art Association from August 15th to September 15th. Opening Reception: Friday, August 16th from 5-7pm.

Also On View: Works by Spotlight Artist Bethany Peck

Bethany Peck: “The unique light and ever-changing seasons of coastal New England serve as endless sources of inspiration for me. Employing an intuitive approach to painting, I strive to craft vibrant, immersive experiences that forge a deep, emotional link with the coastal scenery and its myriad elements.

Describing my art as Contemporary New England Abstract Impressionism, I embrace versatility in mediums and substrates. While much of my creative process unfolds within the sanctuary of my studio, I often find solace and inspiration in plein-air sketching as I fully immerse myself in my surroundings. With each painting I strive to evoke a feeling of place. I intertwine my own perceptions of space with color, light, and emotion.

My personal narratives are commingled with the natural landscape and coalesce to create new meanings.”

Art Intake for Exhibiting Members: Monday, August 12th from 2-6pm in the gallery. Please read our 2024 All Member Exhibit submission guidelines and download your artist contract here: www.kitteryartassociation.org/submission-guidelines

Travel the world and back again - It’s art on the move. Whether artists seek inspiration from adventures abroad or find their muse in their own backyard. Join us for Travels And Trails at the Kittery Art Association from July 11th through August 11th.

Also On View: Works by Spotlight Artist Jeanne Maguire

Opening Reception: Friday, July 12th from 5-7pm.

Jeanne Maguire: As an artist, I have chosen abstraction as my expressive language, pouring my creative energy into acrylic and mixed media works. My process is a constant evolution, fueled by an insatiable curiosity for all things textural, sculptural, and organic. Drawing and composition remain lifelong companions, informing my exploration of where art and science converge - a beautiful intersection I'm driven to understand.

Having called New England home for most of my artistic journey, the local landscapes and historical contexts have left an indelible mark on my work. At my core, I'm fascinated by the human spirit's longing for authenticity and what transpires when that authenticity eludes us. While immersed in the act of creation, I often find myself pondering our spiritual kinships as a species.

Art has been my constant companion from the earliest days, though my path was dramatically reshaped when I suffered a traumatic brain injury as a young mother. The long road to recovery required relearning the most fundamental skills - speaking, writing, walking - while simultaneously caring for my two young children. This arduous period necessarily put my professional art practice on indefinite hold for decades. Yet now, having regained my full faculties, I view this experience as a profound "gift" that has enriched my perspective on the world and the human condition.

With a BA in Visual Arts and Art History, complemented by an advanced degree in Art Education, my passion for creative expression has taken me across the globe. From the ancient wonders of Greece and Italy to the artistic meccas of France, I've immersed myself in studying art's vast histories and philosophies. My work has garnered attention in print and television spheres, with critics lauding my abstract ocean-colored paintings as a pioneering new movement.

"Maguire's swirling, undulating canvases envelop the viewer in a hypnotic aquatic realm," praised one critic. "Layer upon layer of blues, greens, and earthy terracottas intermingle, evoking the ever-shifting mysteries of the deep sea. Her mastery of texture and her bold, gestural brushwork create works that are simultaneously serene and tempestuous, tranquil and turbulent."

Through my art, I strive to capture the essence of the natural world while exploring the depths of the human psyche. It is a lifelong endeavor, one that continually reveals new insights into the wonders that surround us.

Through the camera’s lens. Through mirrors and tricks of the light. Through stark realities and instantaneous wonders. Let’s focus on the photograph: June 6th - July 7th at The Kittery Art Association.

Opening Reception: Friday, June 7th from 5-7pm.

Featured Photograph by Kenny G.

Art Intake for Exhibiting Members: Monday, June 3rd from 2-6pm in the gallery. Please read our 2024 All Member Exhibit submission guidelines and download your artist contract here: www.kitteryartassociation.org/submission-guidelines

Note to KAA Exhibiting Members: All types of photo processing are welcome for this exhibit.

The process of creating artwork is tactile and sometimes requires unwavering exploration. The Kittery Art Association presents “Mixed Up” - a mixed media exhibit, from June 6th through July 7th. Opening Reception: Friday, June 7th from 5-7pm.

Also On View: Works by Spotlight Artist Maggie Sanftleben

“My paintings do not set out to be precise representations but are expressions of the changing rhythm and color of landscapes.”

For 25 years, I was a Graphic Designer and Art Director in Boston, specializing in print, video animation, websites, and identity packages for corporations and nonprofits. Now, residing in Cape Neddick, ME, I draw inspiration from the coastal landscapes, experimenting with various mediums like pan pastels, oils, and acrylics. My graphic design background aids me in deconstructing forms for emotive abstract landscapes. Recently, I delved into encaustic art, learning from instructors at R&F Encaustic in Kingston, NY. Transitioning from brushes to using fire adds a thrilling dimension. Using a heat gun and butane torch, I layer wax with pan pastels, charcoal, oil sticks, fused photos, and wax pencils to create ethereal and bold compositions.


Art Intake for Exhibiting Members: Monday, June 3rd from 2-6pm in the gallery. Please read our 2024 All Member Exhibit submission guidelines and download your artist contract here: www.kitteryartassociation.org/submission-guidelines

Join us to celebrate emerging young artists in our community from May 16th through May 26th at The Kittery Art Association! The Annual K-12 Student Art Show highlights the work of students within the Kittery School System. This show features work from students of Mitchell, Shapleigh, and Traip Academy.

Opening Reception: Thursday, May 16th from 3:30-5:00pm.

In the spirit of Earth Day, The Kittery Art Association honors the planet that we call home. Celebrate this gorgeous, vast, textural blue and green planet. We are in a universe of wonders - from the micro to macro lens.

In conjunction to the Extraordinary Earth exhibit, we are pleased to present a display of artwork from our ceramic artists.

Also On View: Works by Spotlight Artist Terrence Chick

Opening Reception: Friday, April 12th from 5-7pm.

Art Intake for Exhibiting Members: Monday, April 8th from 2-6pm in the gallery. Please read our 2024 All Member Exhibit submission guidelines and download your artist contract here: www.kitteryartassociation.org/submission-guidelines

We will also be presenting a special collection of work from ceramics artists in our membership. Are you a KAA Exhibiting Member and Ceramic Artist who would like to learn more and register for this display? Please find more information and submit you registration here: www.kitteryartassociation.org/ceramics2024

Note to KAA Exhibiting Members: Let’s celebrate Earth with art inspired by our home planet. This can also include artwork made with repurposed or recycled materials.

Join the Kittery Art Association in a celebration of our historic town. Kittery is the oldest incorporated town in Maine, and this beautiful seaside community is steeped in history. Our historic town has much to memorialize; rocky beaches, traditional architecture, historic defense structures, parks, and quiet private spaces. This is our ode to our home, the gateway to Maine.

Featured Artwork: Entrance Fort McClary, Watercolor, Marilyn Eimon.

Art Intake for Exhibiting Members: Monday, March 4th from 2-6pm in the gallery. Please see additional notes below:

This is a special exhibition, and there is a one piece limit for each Exhibiting Member.

• You are welcome to submit supplemental materials to be included in a binder that will be available in the exhibit.

• Items submitted for this project must be printed on standard 8.5x11” copy paper, will remain in the KAA Archives after the show closes.

• These materials may include submissions of prose, poetry, anecdotes, or artist statements that center around the town of Kittery. You may also submit reproductions or scans of photographs, or sketches that are also thematically appropriate.

• Please feel free to email these materials to us at info@kitteryartassociation.org for a chance to have them featured on our website or social media accounts.

• Don’t forget to include your name on these materials so that you may be properly credited.

It is with the greatest honor that we present a collection of etchings from the studio of Mary Margaret Sweeney, on view from March 7th through April 7th at The Kittery Art Association.

“Mary Margaret Sweeney uses the medium of etching in its best traditional manner. Proficient and sophisticated in technique, her prints have the poise and polish of the Old Masters or the Nineteenth Century Etching Revivalists. Indeed the artist confesses the influence of the prints of Childe Hassam. Like this 19th Century American Impressionist, Sweeney is continually inspired by the New England Landscape. With her eyes attuned to the linear vocabulary of etching she finds patterns everywhere in rocks, trees and uneven horizons. While many of her prints depict figures, still lifes, and interiors, she always returns to her favorite forested landscapes." - David Acton, Working Proof

Sweeney attended The Chicago Art Institute majoring in advertising and design, but only found printmaking when she returned to formal art training after raising her children. She graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 1980. In her three-decade career as a printmaker, she has been involved with the Experimental Etching Studio in Boston, The Boston Printmakers, The Society of American Graphic Artists in New York, The New Hampshire Art Association and The League of New Hampshire Craftsmen.

Her works have been exhibited nationally and internationally and are in the permanent collections of the New Hampshire Commission on the Arts, Boston Public Library, Worcester Art Museum, The Art Complex Museum in Duxbury, MA, and Framingham State College.

For many years Mary Margaret Sweeney worked from her Government Street studio, in the heart of Kittery Foreside. Many of her prints are Traditional Intaglio Printmaking, and her more recent works are Solar Plate Etchings which give the image a softer feel. The artist writes about her Traditional Intaglio process: “A printmaker draws through ground on a metal plate. The plate is immersed in an acid bath. Ink is applied to the plate and the excess is wiped away, leaving ink in the etched grooves. Dampened paper is laid on the plate and the plate and paper are run through a printing press. Note that the printed image appears in reverse.” To achieve her color prints the artist applies pigments to each print by hand, using colored pencils.

This exhibition and sale of Mary Margaret Sweeney’s etchings is made possible by Ali Goodwin, and with the generosity of the artist's family.

Each day holds the promise of new beginnings - a fresh start. As humans and as artists, we must embrace transitions and find inspiration; new processes, ideas, chemical reactions. All living things must accept that change is a beautiful part of existence. Join us for Start Fresh! from February 1st through March 3rd, 2024. Opening Reception: Friday, February 2nd from 5-7pm

Art Intake for Exhibiting Members: Monday, January 29th from 2-6pm in the gallery. Please read our 2024 All Member Exhibit submission guidelines and download your artist contract here: www.kitteryartassociation.org/submission-guidelines

Note to KAA Exhibiting Members: This show is all about starting fresh! What new processes, ideas, or inspirations have you been working with over the past few months?

Also On View: Works by Spotlight Artist Jane Zeeb-McDonnell

It took me years to feel comfortable calling myself an artist. I felt like I needed a degree to be legitimate. So I got one. I felt like I had to sell my art. So I sold some. But now I am comfortable just being who I am.

I am a creative person. That means I paint, I draw, I design things. I always feel my best when I am creating something and sharing it with others.

While I have worked in many mediums, I still find watercolor the most intriguing. I paint both plein air and in my studio. Both have their unique challenges and rewards. Plein air is raw and in the moment, influenced by the outdoor elements. Studio time offers the opportunity to play with the distinctive qualities of watercolor.

Being a watercolor artist for quite a few years now, I've collected quite a pile of unfinished or unsatisfying paintings. While not frame worthy, many of these paintings have some part to them that makes them worth saving.

Somehow I came up with the idea to cut up, or with the help of paper punches, cut out pieces of these old paintings and repositioning them onto other old paintings, creating a new, much more exciting version of the previous work.

Not quite being watercolor any more, nor traditional collage, I created the term reconstructed watercolor collage to describe both my process and the finished pieces.