HEAT STROKE at the Saco Museum

The New England Wax show at the Saco Museum, HEAT STROKE: New England Wax Artists Working in Encaustic, opened on Thursday night, April 2nd. This show was a real labor of love by the staff at the museum and by N.E.W. volunteers, especially Diane Bowie Zaitlin and Jeanne O'Toole Hayman. Diane and Jeanne deserve a real round of applause for organizing this show and doing the literal legwork up and down all those stairs at the museum. Many other members assisted as well to make it a great show.

Our entries were juried by Katherine French, Director of the Danforth Museum in Framingham, MA. She did a wonderful job of selecting work and made a point of speaking individually with each artist at the opening.

Katherine French awarded three prizes for excellence: First Prize - Kim Bernard of North Berwick, ME (her plywood, encaustic and lead sculpture is in the center of the photo above), Second Prize - Deborah Kruger of Amherst, MA (her textile and encaustic work is on the wall at right in the photo above). (Other work in this photo is by Diane Langley (3-panel green/black piece), Jeanne Griffin and Pat Gerkin.)

Third Prize went to Greg Wright of Lowell, MA.

There were 25 N.E.W. artists in the show and more than 70 works. Here are some of the works in HEAT STROKE along with artists and viewers at the opening, as photographed by Debra Claffey, who very kindly provided the images for this post. All of the work in the show was primarily encaustic.

Saco Museum Director, Jessica Skwire Routhier, addressing opening goers. Work on the wall: three pieces by Kim Bernard and two by Kellie Weeks.

Three artists with work in the show: Diane Langley, Pat Gerkin and Laura Dunn. The multiple-panel work in the background is by Pat.

Work by Diane Langley left and two pieces by Lynette Haggard right.

A viewer studying one of my pieces in the show. To the right of it is Pat Gerkin's piece and then two more of mine. In the foreground is part of a piece by Laura Dunn.

Kellie Weeks with two of her pieces.

Tools and materials of encaustic were displayed as part of the educational aspect of the show.

There will also be artist talks, a panel discussion and a demonstration of encaustic painting.

The opening was well attended by more than 170 people.

And the refreshments were plentiful. (Work on the wall: 3 by Kim Bernard, 2 by Kellie Weeks, 3 by Louise Lamontagne and 1 by Jeanne Borosky (a closeup photo to folow) and 3 works by Laura Dunn - 2 sculptures and 1 wall piece - sorry no closeup of these.)

Bottom left Octopus by Jeanne Borofsky along with three works by Louise Lamontagne.

Girls and Skybabies by Binnie Birstein.

An encaustic collage by Diane Bowie Zaitlin, one of the show organizers.

And a work by Jeanne O'Toole Hayman, the other organizer.

Free-standing works by Julie Shaw Lutts.

Two assemblage/collage works by Sue Katz.

Three pieces by Catherine Weber.

From left, two pieces by Debra Claffey, three by Kim Bernard and two by Kimberly Curry.

I apologize to those in the show whose work was not included in this post.

The exhibition will continue until May 30th.