Artwork by Grant, Grenier will be featured at Matolcsy during October

NORWAY — The Western Maine Art Group begins its autumn season with a two-location First Friday Receptions Oct. 4 from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Main Street Gallery, 426 Main St., and the Matolcsy Art Center, 480 Main St., in Norway. These galleries exhibit the work of fine artists and artisans living and working in Western Maine.
Featured at the Main Street Gallery in October are the paintings of Sherry Grant, Western Maine Art Group’s Artist of the Month. Grant has been an elementary and middle school teacher in Maine for 33 years. As a reading specialist, she developed, designed and published 20 childrens’ books, focusing on local horses and a dog named Toby.
Shortly after retiring from teaching, Grant began taking art lessons, using watercolor and acrylic mediums to bring vibrant color to her subjects. She enjoys experimenting with mediums and texture and has developed a fondness for the flexibility of acrylic paint, while often adding in watercolor. Her love of nature and respect for the creatures she surrounds herself with drives her passion to capture their personalities with a touch of whimsy.
She writes “I am drawn to rich, strong colors that flow into one another, attempting to create a visual energy appealing to the joy in one’s life.” Main Street Gallery is open Wednesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
At the nearby Matolcsy Art Center, 480 Main St., Georgina Grenier’s show — Half-Certain — will open that same night. The artist will be here to meet and greet patrons and talk with her about her process and her “Certainty.”
Grenier is an artist and public school teacher residing in southwestern Maine. She recently received a grant from the Maine Humanities Council to help produce a community writing project titled “Certainty.” This project explored the various ways in which decisions are made in a time when information and facts can be distorted and the conclusions drawn may be based on faulty information. More than 80 individuals donated writing to this project. Selected pages from “Certainty” are being displayed at the Matolcsy Art Center exhibit throughout October.
In addition to community writing projects, Grenier is a painter and printmaker. She fuses these processes in photo silkscreens, woodcuts, etchings and monotypes. Her large colorful prints will be on display at the Matolcsy Art Center, and comprise the other half of “Half-Certain.” Based on an intense observation of nature, her prints explore the abstract, biological forms of microscopic creatures found in Maine waters.
The public is invited to join the Western Maine Art Group in celebrating these events. For more information, art classes, demonstrations, and special trips sponsored by the WMAG visit westernmaineartgroup.org and facebook, Main Street Gallery. The galleries are free and open to the public.

PHOTO: Georgia Grenier art (Submitted photo)