Richard Boyd Art Gallery located on Peaks Island in Portland, Maine opens the fifth annual Creatures and Critters benefit exhibit on Wednesday, April 1 at 10:00 am.  The exhibit features a selection of art works in a broad range of styles from contemporary to traditional realism, in a variety of mediums, covering an array of subjects depicting animals in sporting scenes, wildlife settings, and animal portraits. The exhibit includes a limited edition bronze sculpture and an oil painting by Jeffrey Ackerman; paintings in oil on canvas by Rob Anderson; paintings in acrylic based gouache, watercolor and mixed media by Amy Bickford; limited edition bronze sculptures by Charles Ellithorpe, DVM; and a painting in acrylic by Kathy Weinberg. The public is invited to meet the artists at a reception at the gallery on Saturday, April 11 from 11:30 am to 2:30 pm. 

Each year a portion of Richard Boyd Art Gallery's net income from the sale of art works featured in the exhibit is donated to an animal charity. The beneficiary this year is the Portland, Maine based group, Friends of Feral Felines (FoFF). The FoFF is a non-profit whose mission is to humanely reduce the number of feral cats in our communities through trapping, neutering, and then releasing them back to their colony sites. Volunteers provide the colonies with food, water and monitor the colonies for new, sick, or injured members who need attention. To learn more about the FoFF please visit http://www.feralfelines.net .

Jeffrey Ackerman's contemporary painting depicts psychic or metaphysical dramas rather than events that take place in time and space. "My characters and the stories they inhabit are metaphors of creativity and metamorphosis. It is important to me that the manner of representation emphasize a quality of existing outside of time and in an indeterminate space, like a dream, myth or fable. I incorporate the forms artists have used for thousands of years - naturalistic, architectonic and geometric. My style and imagery fuses operatic and Baroque fantasy with archaic stylization but is delivered with a modern sense of humor, our defense against the absurd."

Jeffrey studied sculpture and painting at Washington University, School of Fine Arts, in St. Louis, MO and SUNNY at Albany Fine Arts program in Albany, NY. Jeffrey is a partner at Ackerman/Weinberg Restoration and a project manager at Traditional Line Ltd., specializing in all aspects of landmark and institutional restoration, period room installations, residential restorations and historic reproductions. Jeffrey was recently the project manager for installation of the Rockefeller dressing room at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY. Jeffrey has also completed projects for the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA.

Artist Rob Anderson's wildlife paintings in oil on canvas were inspired by his travels across the world and depict animals in natural settings. Rob's ability to capture in detail, each animal depicted in a scene, invites the viewer in for a closer look. Rob was born and raised on a cattle ranch in the Rocky Mountains, where he began his art education at an early age, studying with his scoutmaster noted Wildlife artist Clark Bronson. Rob continued his art education at Brigham Young University, studying under the tutelage of Frank Magleby, and James Christensen. Rob has traveled extensively, including trips to China, Ireland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Europe, and the Caribbean recording images from his travels in sketchbooks and journals for future reference. In 1998 Rob moved to Maine. His continued travels to Alaska, Scotland, England, and Nova Scotia have resulted in a body of work that includes wildlife, mountain ranges, glaciers and the working waterfront in Maine.

Artist Amy Bickford's animal portraits in acrylic based gouache, watercolor, or mixed media depict a broad range of subjects from equine to avian. Amy's ability to capture an animal's personality and physical attributes with great accuracy and authenticity is coveted by collectors of animal portraits. A graduate of the Maine College of Art, Amy has lived in the Portland, Maine area since 1979. She has worked as an interior painter, muralist, and most recently as administrative support for a mental health agency's crisis team. Over the years she has had her hands in many different forms of the arts, painting murals for the Children's Museum of Art, recreating the artwork on the ceiling of the St. John's Cathedral in Bangor, as well as painting commission portraits and works for clients across the United States.

Charles Ellithorpe, DVM is an award-winning sculptor and is also a practicing small animal veterinarian in Brunswick, ME. After graduating from Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine in 1991, Charles lived in Washington and Montana before moving to mid-coast Maine. Charles describes himself as a self-taught artist, but gives much of his credit to his formal training in animal anatomy and his years as a veterinary surgeon. His limited edition bronze sculptures show his dedication to realism and detail. An avid outdoorsman, Charles was an active volunteer veterinarian with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and has been involved with hundreds of hours of hands-on elk management and relocation projects. Currently, Charles' sculptures are in numerous private collections across the United States and Mexico.

Artist Kathy Weinberg says her paintings contain enigmatic figures, suggestions of stories, elements of still life or fragmented allegories. In Kathy's words, "I have created a cast of imagined characters - alter egos - and invented the worlds they inhabit. I begin making an image with a few moves, setting the stage, like a chess game, until an elusive narrative emerges, and the world I am creating takes on a life of its own. The use of vibrant color combinations, enhances the theatricality of the content. I depict a landscape of the mind that has the handmade marks of the material world." Kathy's formal education includes a BFA from Washington University, School of Fine Arts, a juried exchange at the Goldsmith College of Art in London, England, and assistant to printers at the Printmaking Workshop, New York, NY. Kathy is a partner at Ackerman/Weinberg Restoration and also works with Traditional Line Ltd., in New York, NY which specializes in antique furniture, object and historic restoration. Recently, Kathy completed projects for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA. She lives in Morrill, ME.

Richard Boyd Art Gallery is located at the corner of Island Avenue  and Epps Street, in the first building on the right, on the first floor. The exhibit is open free of charge to the public from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm daily through April 30, 2015. For additional information about the exhibit please call the gallery at 207-712-1097, email info@richardboydartgallery.com or visit www.richardboydartgallery.com . For weekly updates or news please like the gallery on Facebook at www.facebook.com/RichardBoydArtGallery . 

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