Come to our open studios on Sunday November 1st from 11am – 4pm and enjoy the work of Susan Lewis Baines.  Susan just recently moved her studio from the Kelpie Gallery in South Thomaston to her home, and now to 26 Split Rock Cove.  She lives right here in South Thomaston.  She says,” This is really a lovely place to work, and I need an open, bright area to do my work.  This is what I require so it’s perfect.”

Susan likes to work in series. The diversity seems to fit her personality.  Currently, she is working in portraiture which is new again to her after working in landscapes.  She says, “I have a whole series ready to roll in my head, which is good, because I usually paint in my head first. At least the idea is in my head and now I’m finally here and able to sit down and start the work.

In this new series, I’m hoping that people will find some humor in it, and obviously I want to do work in a way that people will see that humor, but portraiture is new to me … it’s not in my wheelhouse just yet.“

Susan was a jeweler for over 20 years, but gave that up for health reasons. In getting back to painting she said she had to work at freeing herself up after working in a tiny space on tiny objects for so long. “I started doing studies, and blind contour drawing – when you look at the subject and don’t look at the paper and just draw. What I would do is just that, and then ink over my lines and then add watercolor.  It’s very freeing, of letting go.  And seeing with your eye on a larger scale.”

After painting some very large animal “portraits” including a full-sized Randall bull, Susan went on to abstract landscapes. She had moved her studio from home back into the gallery during the pandemic. “It had been a little while since I had oil paint on a brush.  I just put something on the canvas.  I knew it would probably be awful and it was, it was awful.  I painted until about 3 in the afternoon, and I wiped it off.  I rinsed the rag and wiped it again, rinsed it again and came back and went  –   huh, I like that!”  And so the landscapes in this series are all painted and then wiped.  She calls them the Washed Linen series.  I find them Whistler-like and Susan agrees.

I ask Susan what matters most to her in the work.  And she says quickly, “What matters most to me is how I’m feeling about each piece, and everybody else can come along for the ride or decide not to. Right now I’m just trying to please myself.”

Please come along for the ride to Open Studios on November 1st from 11am – 4pm.  Wear your mask, and please sign up for a specific hour of the day by emailing sandy@26splitrockcove.com or calling 207.596.7624.   We will allow 12 visitors / hour on the property.