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.