Summertime Blues –

August 7th to 9th, 2026

Opening celebration: Friday, Aug 7th, 5-7pm, refreshments served.

Show Hours: Saturday and Sunday: 10- 4pm

Ann O’Hara, Mary Beth Morrison, Janalee Welch, Peggy Fitzgerald , Carolyn Gabbe and Joanie Betterly; painters.

 “Summer Blues” is a show by six painters that have a variety of styles and mediums, but are keenly interested in Maine’s environs and are deeply inspired by what they see.

Ann O’Hara is a pastel painter and finds the blues of the ocean, sky and distant islands in Maine very different from her home vistas in Nebraska! With a background in law, she has retired and continues to show her pastels in both Maine and Nebraska. Arts In The Barn is happy to have her show, and she will give a demonstration of pastel techniques at some point during the weekend.

Carolyn Gabbe is an oil painter and has contributed her artwork in a variety of places including the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. Her work encompasses different subjects from a parade down Main Street to cloudscapes. She is an accomplished artist and has many years’s experience.

Joanie Betterley is an acrylic painter whose year-round interest is in the changes of seasons and tides in her back yard, the Medomak River in Friendship, and make her work immersive and beautiful. She writes: “ I realized that color makes me feel happy so I surround myself with color and use a lot of color in my paintings.  I started painting watercolors in the late 90’s and switched to acrylics (and occasionally oils) about 10 years later.  I studied under Bill Griffiths at the Worcester Art Museum for 20 years.

Mary Beth Morrison writes: “I began seriously painting in Watercolor, expanding to acrylics, soft plate printing, and soft pastels, which I favor because of their immediacy, pure color, and ease of use. I’ve participated in art collaboration, gallery sharing, teaching classes and workshops for 40 years. Currently I serve as President of the Pastel Society of Maine.

Peggy Fitzgerald is a Maine-based artist who works primarily in oil and watercolor. During the later part of her career in nursing, she moved to coastal Maine and pursued her interest in painting. Watercolor presented itself as a curiosity she couldn’t put aside, and oil painting soon followed.

Janalee Welch is a retired teacher and lifelong artist. She has worked in a variety of media including pastels, for which she has won a number of awards. Her most current works are done in acrylic and she shows in Art Space Gallery in Rockland. Pictured here is Ann O’Hara’s “Summer Blues”, pastel.

Landscape: Degrees of Abstraction – August 21st to 23rd

Opening celebration, Friday August 21st, 5-7pm, refreshments served.

Show Hours: Saturday and Sunday: 10- 4pm

Come see four unique and divergent depictions of the Maine landscape by Seth Aylmer, Lisa Kyle, Lee Talboys and Jim Lynch. Seth Aylmer is an oil painter of whimsical and brillant colored canvases, often representing his feelings of parenthood, life on or near the water, and life in general. Lisa Kyle writes: “As far back I can remember, I have loved to draw and paint. I always wanted to be a painter. Even when I began practicing architecture, I studied painting. I begin most paintings by sketching, and often paint plein-air, on site.” Lee Talboys writes that after being an architect for many years: “I turned my attention to painting in 2021, at the suggestion of my wife, Lisa Kyle, who is a full-time landscape painter. I hope that my paintings make people smile!” Jim Lynch writes: “I did not start painting until 2002 when, by sheer serendipity, I was invited to attend Art Week on Great Spruce Head Island in Penobscot Bay. Although I started the week by making landscape photographs, I was inspired by the group of talented painters feverishly capturing the beauty and character of the island from dawn till dusk.”

These oil , acrylic and watercolor paintings present a range of interpretations of the natural world that resonate with our times, provide meaning, and illuminate beauty. Realism, impressionism, graphic symbolism, abstraction – many tools and styles of the past are up for consideration with the work of these diverse local artists.

Pictured here is Seth Aylmer’s “Rock Face II”, oils.

Adult Theater Camp–

September 8th through 17th

1-3:30pm on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, with Lois Pernice

Play readings, Theater games and skits, character development, and anything that interests you about what it is like being and actor! Talk to Lois at: loispernice@gmail.com .