Maine’s celebrated seaboard comes ingrained with a deep artistic heritage. Perhaps that’s no surprise, given the sheer beauty of the rockbound coast (and the sandy seashores of far Southern Maine, too). Away from the hubbub of East Coast metroplexes, boasting an intoxicating marriage of natural splendor and venerable maritime culture, this is a landscape and seascape that’s long drawn painters, sculptors, photographers, and wordsmiths alike.
Here at The Craignair Inn by the Sea, we’re not only inspired by that homegrown artistic heritage: We’re honored to actively support and promote local and regional contemporary artists from the MidCoast and elsewhere in Maine. Our Craignair Gallery presents a full cycle of exhibitions all year round, making our historic, upscale bed-and-breakfast here in Spruce Head, Maine a destination for art connoisseurs as well as anybody seeking the finest in oceanfront hospitality.
The fact that our Gallery also serves as one of the dining spaces for our Causeway Restaurant—allowing diners the opportunity to combine top-class gastronomy with local art appreciation—is the icing on the cake, if you will!
Maine as “Muse”
From its ageless and picturesque lighthouses and storm-raised whitecaps to snowbound woods and saltwater farmscapes, the Maine coast offers the artist endless sensory inspiration, not to mention the perfect sort of atmosphere to experiment and create, whatever the subject matter.
The coast’s artistic legacy is notable, to say the least, from the art colonies farther south in Ogunquit to the far-reaching influence of Andrew Wyeth, celebrated—along with his father, N.C. Wyeth, and his son, Jamie—at the Wyeth Center of the Farnsworth Art Museum in nearby Rockland.
Admire Works by Contemporary Maine Artists in Upcoming Craignair Gallery Exhibitions
Fresh on the heels of our 2024 Winter Featured Artist Group Exhibition, we’re marking spring in the Craignair Gallery with some wonderful shows. First up is Katherine Ashby, who splits her time between her birthplace of Castleton-on-Hudson, New York, and the family cottage in Tenants Harbor, Maine, where the rockbound coast’s seascapes provide rich fodder for paintings.
Tantalized by time and the “fleeting magic of moments,” Ashby often evokes the fall of dusk in her pieces—and very beautifully so, we might add. (More on her exhibition below!)
From April 29th through May 28th, we’ll be featuring the works of Nancy T. Baker, a Maine-based painter who’s studied widely—at the Isabel O’Neill Studio for Painted Finishes in New York City, Yellow Barn Studio in Glen Echo, Maryland, the Corcoran College of Art & Design in Washington, D.C., and beyond—and completed a residency at the Vermont Studio Center. Baker illustrated the award-winning 2021 children’s book The First Blade of Sweetgrass.
Baker’s website notes that “painting for her is a constant experiment because she is energized by new approaches, some intentional and others that spontaneously occur.” Her Artist’s Opening at the Craignair Gallery (featuring, as always, complimentary beverages and snacks) will take place on May 1st from 4 to 7 PM.
Looking further ahead, our Maine art gallery will be spotlighting self-taught Port Clyde-based oil painter Kenneth Schweizer from May 28th through June 25th, with an opening-night party on May 29th (4 to 7 PM).
Currently at the Craignair Gallery in Spruce Head, Maine: Paintings by Katherine Ashby
Katherine Ashby lives with her family in her hometown of Castleton-on-Hudson, New York, but her summers are typically spent at her family college in Tenants Harbor, Maine. That’s really only a hop, skip, and a jump down the coast from The Craignair Inn by the Sea, so we can essentially consider Katherine a neighbor of ours!
Ashby, who earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Art and Psychology from Troy, New York’s Russell Sage College, takes artistic inspiration from both of the grounding landscapes of her yearly round. At her Craignair Gallery exhibition, therefore, you’ll not only get to savor evocations of Maine’s coastlands and ocean skylines but also works representing the rural beauty of Upstate New York.
But these paintings go deeper than surface-level landscapes, delving into the psychogeographic interplay of place and consciousness. As Ashby explains it on her website, “The subject is not painted just as I see it, but rather, as I feel it. Painting takes invisible emotions and allows them to be seen.”
Also “interested in the representation of time,” Ashby’s paintings frequently depict the ethereal and liminal temporal realm of dusk. “I am inspired by the way in which light and shadows can reflect the ephemeral nature of life,” she writes on her website. “Furthermore, I am concerned with depicting the fleeting magic of moments that are difficult to describe with words.”
Enjoy Fine Maine Art—and Delicious Gourmet Cuisine—in the Gallery at the Inn by the Sea
We’re overjoyed to present Katherine Ashby’s mesmerizing pieces in our Craignair Gallery through April 29th. We do hope you’ll come to stay with us during her exhibition, maybe taking a Causeway Restaurant meal in the Gallery to boot!
For each exhibition, we host an Artist’s Opening reception from 4 to 7 PM, complete with complimentary snacks and beverages. While Katherine Ashby’s opening-night party took place on February 28th, you’ve still got time to plan for Nancy Baker’s on May 1st and/or Ken Schweizer’s on May 29th.
And then, of course, more to come for the summer! You can take a gander at the full lineup for 2024 at the Craignair Gallery right here.
Come stay with us this spring at The Craignair Inn by the Sea, relishing firsthand the beauty of the MidCoast alongside on-site works by some of the very best Maine artists and coastal cuisine of the first order at our Causeway Restaurant. If you’ve never enjoyed a Causeway meal within the Craignair Gallery, you’re missing out! Book a Causeway Restaurant table in the Craignair Gallery and join us for good art, good eats, and good vibes.
