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Along the Kennebec Estuary

Landscapes by Sally Loughridge

Along the Kennebec Estuary exhibition reviewed in Maine Sunday Telegram
July 19, 2009

A portion of the proceeds from sales of the art benefit KELT!

The Kennebec Estuary Land Trust presents “Along the Kennebec Estuary,” an exhibit of original artwork by South Bristol painter Sally Loughridge.

The exhibit includes over 35 paintings in soft pastel, oil and watercolor.

For the past year Loughridge has travelled and painted the vistas along the Kennebec Estuary.  In the spring of 2008 she invited the Kennebec Estuary Land Trust (KELT) to collaborate with her on the exhibit by sharing educational information about the region and the preserves it stewards.  The Trust is dedicated to conservation of the natural, historic, scenic, cultural and agricultural resources of the Kennebec Estuary. 

KELT wrote descriptive material for each painting that provides detail on the location and the ecology of the site.  Celebrating their 20th anniversary, the Trust has worked with landowners since 1989 to protect open space and natural habitats for a diversity of plants and wildlife.  Based in Bath, the membership supported nonprofit has conserved 1651 acres throughout the estuary. 

In repeated explorations of the estuary region by car, foot and boat, Loughridge has observed innumerable scenes of compelling beauty – forests, tidal marshes, shoreline and fields – ever changing with light, weather and season. From the placid still waters of a day on the Back River to the surging seas off Popham Beach after a storm, the estuary expanse offers an array of critical habitat nurturing wildlife, native plants and mankind. 

During a river trip last July through the Back River into the Kennebec, the painter watched seals, cormorants, nesting osprey, leaping sturgeon and stripers against a backdrop of brilliant water and lime green marsh grasses.  “Everything is interconnected,” Loughridge reflects, “The health of the natural environment and its resident species depend on the balance and interplay of air quality, open space, fertile land, water purity and food sources.”

Loughridge has exhibited widely in the mid coast region for almost ten years.  Her soft pastel paintings have garnered a number of awards in juried shows.  She has taught pastel painting for the last seven years, initially at Round Top Center for the Arts until its closure and then privately and through the Farnsworth Museum during the last two years.  Mae’s Café is open for breakfast and lunch daily.  FMI contact the artist (www.sallyloughridge.com) or the Kennebec Estuary Land Trust (www.kennebecestuary.org).