September 1, 2026 - September 29, 2026

The Blue Hill Public Library will present a new art show titled “Color!” –a collaboration by painters Jill Finsen and Walter Smalling, and ceramicist Susan Finsen. The three Blue Hill Peninsula artists hope to spur observers to consider how deeply color influences what we see, remember, and enjoy. They say it can energize us, calm us, make us curious, and make us smile. The public is invited to a reception with the artists on Friday, September
4, from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m.

About her work, Jill Finsen offers, “Rather than realistic hues and forms, I use bold and imagined color, flattened planes, and varying paint texture to invite the viewer in through emotion. Painting from observation or memory, I create exaggerated objects and leave anchoring details unresolved within an imagined space. You can roam the image for yourself, entering where you will, and leaving with an experience that is both aesthetic and affecting.”

Like Jill Finsen, Walter Smalling started with photography, his career for 50 years. He says, “Painting was liberating, and it became a second career. The world of the Maine coast never fails to excite and incite me, but increasingly, I have come to create my own world as well. That included making the world any color I chose! Color has become more important to me, to leave behind the objective physical world and invent my own ‘reality.’”

Susan Finsen says that, for the last few years, clay hand-building (not using a pottery wheel) has been the medium of choice, providing unlimited opportunities for play and spontaneity and producing unexpected organic forms and surfaces. According to Susan, “‘Contemporary’ underglazes and glazes offer a way to integrate abstract colorful imagery as I move between minimalist and complex surfaces, and between managed and organic forms. Colors, shapes, and marks are created, refined, moved, and/or erased until I find the look and feel that interests and excites me.”

The show will be available for viewing starting September 2, subject to the
Howard Room meeting schedule. For more information, contact the library at
374-5515.