As summer yields to fall, Maine Art Hill presents Local Color, a vibrant group show that offers three distinct visions rooted in place, texture, and light. Artists Ingunn Milla Joergensen, Claire Bigbee, and Jill Matthews, all from the Kennebunks region, invite us to linger in moments of nature, memory, and materiality.
There is something deeply comforting and necessary in this show, especially in our moments of hurried pace, constant digital stimulation, and seasons changing ever faster. Local Color is a reminder that art can slow us down, guiding us to see the bloom, the fading light, and the strength in simplicity.
Each piece, whether flower, landscape, barn, or abstract form, encourages a pause. To breathe. To drink in color not just as pigment, but as lived experience.
Ingunn Milla Joergensen works with the garden as both metaphor and motif, her canvases capturing blossoms and quiet moments as symbols of passing time. Claire Bigbee brings color as atmosphere, painting the way light falls and the interplay of geography and mood. Her pieces anchor us in place, reminding us of the Kennebunks’ coastline and the shifting skies. Jill Matthews offers a counterpoint, with material contrasts and layers that lean into abstraction. Her paintings often suggest what lies beneath, the imprint of time, the texture of surfaces shaped by weather, memory, and use.
Together, their works form a conversation. Joergensen’s meditative garden, Bigbee’s luminous atmospheres, and Matthews’ tactile reflections blend into a shared exploration of how color holds memory, place, and emotion.
The show Local Color is on view from September 20 through October 15 at Maine Art Hill, located at 5 Chase Hill Rd in Kennebunk, Maine. The gallery is open daily at 10 AM. For more information, visit maine-art.com, email info@maine-art.com, or call 207-967-2803.