Stop in Richard Boyd Art Gallery in July and relax while viewing a presentation of beautifully detailed maritime, landscape, surrealistic dreamscapes, and abstract paintings that touched my soul and made me think about what inspired the artist to create that painting. The exhibit offers a selection of paintings that make you pause to take in their beauty, detail, or contemplate the underlying meaning behind the work.

The paintings, created from the heart and soul of the artist, draw you into a moment in time when an event or scene inspired the artist to create. Was it an emotion, a dream, light, mood, color or something else? Whatever the inspiration, these are paintings that remain relevant through the years.

The exhibition also presents a study of contrasting styles from impressionism to realism and features a selection of original visual art created by artists from diverse backgrounds whose range of styles, choice of mediums, and color palette give them distinction in the visual arts community.

On exhibit are a select offering of paintings by nationally renowned, award winning, and established artists Deena S. Ball – watercolor; CR Bryant – oil; Patricia Chandler – oil, and cold wax medium; Randy Eckard – dry-brush watercolor; Richard H. Eyster – dry-brush watercolor; and HM Saffer II – pointillist style oils.

If you like a specific style of painting, pointillism, abstracts, or traditional realism, you will see a painting in the exhibit that brings you in for a closer look.

The exhibition is open free charge from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. daily July 1st through July 30th, 2024. For more information about the exhibit contact the gallery by phone (207)-712-1097, email mailto:info@richardboydartgallery.com or visit the gallery’s website www.richardboydartgallery.com .

See you at the gallery.

Pam Williamson

About The Artists

Deena S. Ball

Deena S. Ball is a nationally renowned landscape painter, known for her innovative use of watercolors in combination with textured ground and specialized surfaces. She holds a BA in Art History and Studio Art from Colby College in Waterville, Maine and continued her studies at Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art and Tyler School of Art.

A student of nature, she creates paintings to help others see, respect, and conserve the beauty of our natural world with her love of nature, science, and art coming together when she paints en Plein Air. Deena strives to create simple expressive paintings inspired by nature depicting scenes from the interior mountains to the coast of Maine which capture a moment in time and strike an emotional chord with the viewer.

An active teaching artist for both adults and children, she is regularly invited to conduct workshops and presentations for artist’s organizations. Recent presentations include ones for the Philadelphia Watercolor Society, Onodaga Art Society and Salem County Art Society. She teaches workshops and classes on zoom for art organizations across the nation including RiverArts in Maryland, Mendocino Art Center in California, Community Art Center and Wayne Art Center in Pennsylvania, and Artascope in Maine.

Deena is a past president of the Philadelphia Water Color Society, co-founder and Artistic Director of the non-profit LandArt Events, a signature member of Philadelphia Watercolor Society, Baltimore Watercolor Society, PennsylvaniaWatercolor Society, and is a Pennsylvania Guild Master Craftsman. Her paintings are exhibited throughout the Northeast and can be found in Watercolor Artist, several annual publications of Splash, and most recently En Plein.

C.R. Bryant

Internationally renowned Maine artist C. R. (Bob) Bryant created Maritime art for more than 60 years.  Born in the eye of a hurricane in Central Florida, he created his first painting at age five. Later, as a member of the Palm Beach Museum of Art he painted on site copying, reproducing, and learning from the masters.

Following his service in Southeast Asia, his understanding and appreciation of visual arts was enriched while living in Europe and devoting considerable time in the world’s great art museums, living and painting in the footsteps of the old masters.

Working primarily with oils using techniques of the old masters learned over years of study, he became a master of realism. Known for his ability to paint water he had a working knowledge of sailing ships and is recognized as a leading international marine artist.

Relocating to the Pacific Northwest in 1988, his focus centered on preserving the rich Marine history of Puget Sound and his passion for classic sailing yachts. A key aspect of his work involved the human figure, seldom included in maritime paintings but frequently the subject of his work. Many of his paintings, specifically yachts, are portraits of crew and owners. His love for the sea evolved through his considerable sailing experiences, and he never strayed far from the water. Bob moved to the East coast and continued to create maritime paintings from his studio in Cape Neddick, Maine until his passing in November of 2023.

He was a member of The Copley Society of Art Boston, The Copley Society Portrait Registry, The Puget Sound Group of Northwest Painters, The Maritime Gallery Mystic Seaport Greenwich Connecticut, The International Marine Artists, associate member The Salmagundi Club New York City, and Co-Founder of PRIMA the Pacific Rim Institute of Marine Art.

Fifteen of Bob's paintings are in the permanent collection of COGAP - United States Coast Guard Art Program, and his paintings are in maritime museums, and part of permanent collections held by national and international corporations, and in private collections in Europe, Asia, the West Indies, and the Americas.

Patricia Chandler

Born and raised in Maine, Patricia Chandler’s career as a commercial and fine artist, spans six decades. She earned a BFA in Illustration from Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, Rhode Island and MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York.

After several years of working in the commercial field creating illustrations Pat moved to Minnesota, where she renewed her interest in printmaking and painting at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, moving back to Maine in 1971, later becoming an Adjunct Professor of Painting and Drawing at the University of Maine from 2005 to 2014.

Her creative process and production inevitably refer to her geographic roots. “Maine’s more remote regions inspired much of my artwork to the same degree that its landscapes informed my early life. Ever since I can remember, the trees and woods, mountains, lakes, and fields of Maine have been where my mental, physical, and emotional balance could be restored.

The influence of those sensual memories emerges strongly when I work in the studio. My work includesrealistic paintings that seek to record places and certain senses of space and color in sites more visited in the summer by people from other places. Those are more meditative in practice–exercises. The expressionistic, semi-abstract images touch the feeling associated with those wilderness regions of forest and ocean. The variety of Maine’s natural environment is sufficient for many lifetimes of an artist.”

Pat lives in South Portland, Maine where she continues to create paintings in a range of mediums and styles. Her work is widely collected and held in private and corporate collections across the US.

Randy Eckard

Raised in North Carolina, Randy studied at the Ringling School of Art in Sarasota, Florida and the Haywood School of Craft in Clyde, North Carolina. A trained commercial and fine artist living in Blue Hill, Maine Randy’s career as a fine artist working exclusively with watercolors spans more than three decades.

Randy is known for his use of light and shadow, with the subject of most of his paintings being light and how it defines and shapes the scene before him. His watercolors capture the timeless beauty and charm of Maine’s architecture and landscapes, and his ability to capture the beauty and nuances of simply utilitarian objects in watercolor is magical.

Randy is “closing in on forty years of working with watercolors. For several years I was fascinated by the versatility and wonder of drawing with pencil, and pen and ink. An HB pencil, a kneaded eraser, and a sheet of bristol board, opened a world or exploration in black and white. At the urging of a friend, I tried adding watercolor to the early stages of my drawings, and I was soon painting more than drawing.  My love of drawing never diminished and continues with quite detailed drawings in preparation for painting.

As a young boy, growing up in the Piedmont area of North Carolina, I began noticing and responding to the warm glow and cool, contrasting shadows of late afternoons. Those early observations of light would become the focus of my paintings. Light reveals the character, color, and texture of objects, whether man-made or natural, and the alternation of lighted and shadowed planes produce powerful repeated patterns and are an important element of design.

Early on I realized how quiet observation would most always reveal the life of a subject, and I learned to pay attention to sparks of inspiration, often arriving unexpectedly during my solitary wanderings along the backroads of coastal Maine.”

Randy has won over 190 awards for his paintings in watercolor throughout New England and the Southeast recently winning the Red Ribbon Award in Watercolor, Graphics, and Drawings at the Vero Beach, Florida 2021 Under the Oaks Arts Festival. His work is widely collected and included in numerous private and corporate collections.

Richard Eyster

Massachusetts based artist Richard H. Eyster is a highly regarded fine artist, retired educator, and author whose medium of choice is watercolor. 

Eyster’s paintings are created using a dry-brush technique with an absolute minimum of water. Working with Kolinsky sable brushes and an absolute minimum of water, the pigment dries quickly and deeply on heavy archival French paper, allowing layers of luminous color to emerge through the image.

The finely detailed work invested in each painting often consumes three to five months.  A single leaf might take a week for the precise layering of color. Whether celebrating the lush ripeness of summer berries or conveying a shell scape on the ocean floor, the work is built on a deep and evocative power. Eyster’s technique is primarily photosurrealistic, illuminating the most personal explorations in carefully detailed imagery. There is no ostensible “meaning” to his paintings…the symbolism, if any, is unintentional and, at best, subconscious.

Now living by the ocean on Boston’s North Shore, he finally leaves his education career behind in 2015. He founds Time Let Me Play and Uneasy Truce Studios and devotes his energy and imagination full-time to the pursuit of his art.

Richard's paintings have been shown in the National Arts Club (NY), the American Watercolor Society at the Salmagundi Club (NY), and National Academy of Design (NY). His paintings are exhibited throughout the Northeast and held in numerous private and public collections. 

HM Saffer II

HM Saffer II is a pointillist artist with a focus on landscapes. His paintings are a combination of Western techniques with those from the Orient, such as sumi-e, and the use of Japanese and Chinese colors creating a unique path towards the visual expression of his personal and emotional views.

A multi-talented visual and performing artist HM graduated from Temple University in 1965, and traveled to Paris, France to enroll in graduate economics courses. While in Paris he performed with many notable French stars including Hugues Autray, Jacques Brel and many other. Later hired by Barclay Records as a producer and he had hit records in 1968 and 1969.

Saffer returned to the United States in 1971 and continued on with his music career at Warner Brothers Productions. He later established HMS Two Music Ltd. and spent his time writing and producing music for films, commercials, recordings, and Broadway productions. HM’s work in the commercial field includes creations for Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Ford Motor Company, and Michelob, among others.

Through this period he continued to paint. In 1981 he began to study the art of Japanese brush painting, Sumi-e. HM traveled to Japan in 1983 to study with Japanese masters and was represented by Galerie Musee and the Artbridge Gallery in Japan, and in Hong Kong by Alisen Gallery and the Kaai Fung Hin Gallery as a resident artist where he enjoyed many successful solo exhibits.

HM reentered the United States in 1994 and took residence in Upstate New York. He instructed at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA, Berkshire Community College, and Columbia-Greene Community College. His works are in numerous corporate and private collections around the globe.

About Richard Boyd Art Gallery

Richard Boyd Art Gallery is an award winning owner operated fine arts gallery representing a diverse group of internationally and nationally renowned, and established artists. The gallery exhibits original paintings in a range of styles from multiple genres, limited edition bronze sculptures, and a select offering of works in clay. Exhibitions change monthly so clients and visitors always discover something new and exciting when visiting the gallery.

The gallery is open year-round. From the first of April through the end of October the gallery is open between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. daily. From the first of November through the end of March the gallery is open every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Additional days and times by chance or scheduled by appointment. For more information about the gallery call (207)-712-1097, email info@richardboydartgallery.com or visit the gallery’s website www.richardboydartgallery.com .

For exhibit updates follow the gallery on Facebook www.facebook.com/RichardBoydArtGallery and on Instagram http://www.instagram.com/richardboydartgallery9327 .