Meet The Artists

SARA GRAY

Maine based artist Sara Gray began painting 10 years ago after transitioning from a successful photography business of 25 years.

Her work has always been influenced by her love of the natural landscape. Having been brought up on a horse farm in VT and living and traveling extensively throughout the US and abroad it was always the varying landscapes that touched her deeply and inspired her to pick up the camera and more recently the paint brush.

“Photography has been extremely important in my transition to painting. It taught me to see and how to compose a compelling image. It also taught me the importance of light and the role it plays in a successful image. Painting has allowed me a different level of intimacy with the landscape. By slowing down and spending hours looking at a subject I see details and subtle nuances that went unnoticed when photographing the same landscape. What fascinates me after spending years of recording light with my camera is that I am now the creator of light in my paintings through the use of color and value.”

Sara has studied extensively at the Maine College of Art in their Continuing Studies Program painting with Janet Manyan and Diane Dahlke. After discovering Plein Air painting and the challenge and joy of creating outside once again she began taking workshops with plein air painters she admires including Tim Horn, Jon Redmond, Mark Boedges and Lori Putnam with whom she recently completed a 6 month mentorship program.

Sara has competed in three juried Plein Air Competitions the past two years, where she has been awarded with two Honorable Mentions. One at the 2019 Castine Plein Air Festival and the other at the 2020 Parrsboro International Plein Air Festival.

Sara paints with oils and the landscape of Maine and Vermont continue to offer a constant source of inspiration.

 

PATTY LAGE

Patty Lage has always been a visually creative person. Her early retirement from the corporate world afforded her the opportunity to pursue her desire to paint. She began by enrolling in classes at Maine College of Art (MECA), beginning with classes in drawing, then acrylics, and finally transitioning to oil painting. Patty found she enjoyed oils because of the richness in the colors and how these colors

transferred to the canvas. Through the influence of her mentor, Barbara Butorac, Patty learned how to use color and subject matter in her work. This mentorship honed Patty’s skills and increased her desire to paint.

At MECA, Patty became friendly with a group of like-minded artists. They continued to practice figure painting, at a studio in the Westbrook Mill during the winter months, and plein air during the summer months.

Patty has traveled from her home in Maine to Kentucky and even France, to take classes and practice her craft. While walking the countryside in Emmet, France, Patty saw a woman working her garden with a hoe. It was so beautiful that Patty had to paint the scene. It remains one of her favorite paintings.

Painting from her home studio in Cumberland Maine, Patty’s eye for color and shape is evidenced in her subject matter, which includes figures, farms, animals, equipment, and fruit. She uses her own photographs and paints commission pieces where the client supplies the subject matter. Whatever the subject, Patty has found her passion and enjoys getting lost in the creative process and the pure joy of painting.