Kennebunk artists Allaire and Legg to exhibit
at Maine Art Gallery
by Carol Standish

WISCASSET - Pastel artists Anne Gable Allaire and Ann Legg of Kennebunk are among eight Maine artist featured in "Pastel Perspectives," opening at the Maine Art Gallery in Wiscasset Thursday May 16, with a public reception from 5 to 7 p.m. Mast Cove Galleries represent both artists. While eash is primarily a representational painter, Allaire and Legg bring unique perspective and experience to their work.

Trained as an interior designer, Allaire begins her paintings "en plein air" and completes them in her studio. Noting that the pastel medium is enjoying a renaissance, Allaire asserts that the "directness of the medium enables me to put down on paper what I see, with an immediacy that allows my creativity to flow." She has exhibited extensively, in Maine and won many awards, including First Place Pastel in 2001 Maine Women in the Arts Poetic License Show and Best of Show in the 2000 annual National Exhibition of the Pastel Painters of Maine.

The new president of the Art Guild of the Kennebunks, Legg brings a background in theater and experience in Africa and Texas to her pastel painting. Exploring the "relationship between emotion and movement," she used saturated color and dramatic composition in her two-dimensional works. Legg has been included in many juried exhibitions and taken many awards, including the President's Award in the 2001 annual National Exhibition fo the Pastel Painters of Maine and First Place Oils in the 2001 Maine Women in the Arts Spring Exhibit.

Continuing through June9, " Pastel Perspectives" will be open during gallery hours Tuesday through Satuday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday 1 to 4 p.m. The exhibit also features works by Kathleen Galligan, Lois A. Goldstone, Judith Leighton, Jenifer Litchfield, Marlene Loznicka, and Cricket Tuper. Pastel paintings by the curator, Sally Loughridge, will hang concurrently in the Bestibule Gallery.