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Park It Here: A Bridgton Arts Festival Turns Five

July 16, 2008 - BRIDGTON -- Though Greg Marston makes a living building and restoring furniture, this summer he is teaching himself to paint small landscapes and still-lifes.

"If you paint you're not representing anything but who you are," said Marston, 56, who will exhibit his work at Bridgton's Art in the Park show for the first time this July. "It's all about doing it. I want to paint, that's all."

For the fifth annual Art in the Park show, 60 artists and members of the Bridgton Art Guild will show a variety of work at Shorey Park in Bridgton. The show will be held Saturday, July 19, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., with a rain date of July 20. Accompanying the artwork will be booths with food and information about local nonprofit organizations.

A reception will be held Friday, July 18, 5-7 p.m., at Gallery 302, operated by the Bridgton Art Guild, to celebrate the guild's five-year anniversary. The guild has grown from around 50 members to around 115 artists and supporters of the arts since 2003.

Co-organizer Joe Beecher said a variety of artists will show their work this year, including 13 photographers, 19 three-dimensional artists and 28 two-dimensional artists. As of the end of June there were two open spaces.

A payment booth, staffed by members of the Bridgton Art Guild, will make it to buy works from artists with cash or a credit card.

All of the artists who exhibit their work are members of the Bridgton Art Guild, and most of the artists are from the Bridgton area, though some travel from other states. Art in the Park is the one event the art guild directs outside of the gallery space.

Beecher said the art guild started Art in the Park to provide a venue for artists on the waiting list for the gallery or who didn't want to commit to gallery space. Another purpose of the show, Beecher said, was to promote Bridgton. "The impetus really was to have an art show that was going to attract people into town," Beecher said.

Though Marston, of Bridgton, has been painting for a few years, he said he has little experience. "I have no idea what I'm doing," Marston said. "I just know it's addictive." Though he has sold paintings in the past, this is the first time he's tried to create a collection of work, and has borrowed money to make this possible.

What Marston estimates as his 14th painting is a still life of lemons in a 17th century English Delph bowl with cracks where it was broken and glued back together. On July 3 Marston was working on the piece in his open, breezy workshop. On a small rectangle of pine cut from a section of siding, Marston gently dabbed at his reproduction of the lemons with a fine-tipped brush. Classical music played in the background.

Before starting this painting, Marston said he brought the bowl, which he is borrowing from a friend, to a grocery store to choose fruit to paint. He filled the bowl with oranges, then he filled it with apples and finally he tried lemons. He ended up bringing home the lemons. They sit in the bowl on top of an antique sideboard Marston is thinking about refurbishing, if he can find a buyer.

When he isn't painting, Marston restores and builds furniture. Lining the sides of his workshop is a partly-finished bed frame, a pile of dusty chairs and shelves of tools. Most of his work is by commission.

All of Marston's paintings are small, with the largest measuring 6-by-9 inches. He said he paints small because it's more economical and he likes to group pictures. "By doing small ones I think they're a lot more fascinating to look at," Marston said.

He paints still-lifes and landscapes from photos and others he creates from his imagination. He also makes wooden frames for all his paintings, which are often larger than the paintings themselves.

Though Marston hopes to show 10 paintings at the show, he only had one unsold painting completed by July 3. He tries to paint for at least six hours a day and it can take him more than that amount of time to complete one piece.

"The problem is trying to make money and paint," Marston said. He said he likes painting because it's a new challenge and he doesn't have to punch a time clock when he starts and finishes. "Like with anything that someone enjoys, you sort of get into a zone," Marston said.

Bridgton resident Mark Fleck creates very different art but described it in similar terms. Fleck, like Marston, called the creation process trial and error and something he does because he enjoys it. He had a story for each of the welded metal pieces that decorated his yard. "If it's going to be art, it's got to be your art," Fleck said.

Sweat glistening on his face, Fleck, 48, took a break from splitting wood to give a tour of his metal work July 3. His front yard was covered with creatures and objects made from salvaged metal parts, chains, tools and silverware.

Fleck, who repairs machinery and equipment ranging from backhoes to lawn chairs, has been collecting leftover metal parts for most of his life. After receiving a bone marrow transplant six years ago, Fleck finally took the time to try his hand at sculpture.

He recalled hobbling down to his workshop with a walker, still weak from the transplant, to create his first sculpture. He let the metal scraps inspire him to weld a caterpillar from an old saw blade and horseshoes. Just as he was finishing, a woman who had stopped by with a lawn chair for him to fix offered to buy the piece and Fleck realized he could do more.

Now Fleck splits his time between his repair work and his artwork, though he still hesitates to call himself an artist. He said he doesn't want to expand the reach of his artwork too much, though he already ships pieces all over the United States. "I've tried my darndest to stay off the Internet," Fleck said. "I want to keep it something I truly enjoy."

The majority of the metal Fleck uses is salvaged. He uses parts from his repairs and he goes to yard sales, junk piles, thrift stores and transfer stations to look for interesting scraps of metal. Fleck said that people know what he's looking for and sometimes he comes home to find metal parts waiting for him on his porch.

This is the second year Fleck will show his work at Art in the Park. Last year he won the first place prize for three-dimensional art. "I ended up having a wonderful time," Fleck said the show, which he said his wife Georgiann talked him into joining. This year he plans to bring 20-25 pieces, including a tall giraffe and her two babies.

Holly Best of Denmark has brought jewelry to Art in the Park since its inception. "I like what it brings to downtown Bridgton," Best said, describing the artists who display their work as "an eclectic group." Best travels to a few shows over the summer, and she said Art in the Park is typically one of her most successful. She also sells her work from her home studio and over the Internet.

Best, in her early 60s, is trained as a psychotherapist and does homeopathy with animals, has been making jewelry for 20 years. In the beginning, Best said, she worked with beads to relax. She began collecting beads and later began working with wire and polymer clay. She said her current work "evolved from beads and being fascinated with color."

One of the reasons Best enjoys showing at Art in the Park every year is because it gives her an opportunity to showcase new projects. This year Best said she will bring some new wire and pearl designs and a new look to her combination pins and pendants. She said she often works gemstones into the clay and paints her clay pieces, sometimes with many layers of paint.

"I get totally focused on it," Best said. "It's like a whole little world unto itself." Best said she does not draw out projects beforehand but instead follows her inspiration. "I often wake up in the morning and I have an idea that came to me during the night," Best said.

"The thing I like the best is when someone sees something that speaks to them," Best said.

Beecher said the show benefits both patrons and artists. "You get to actually talk to the artist," Beecher said, adding that the Bridgton Art Guild requires artists to staff their own booths.

"We generate an awful lot of income for both the artists and for the art guild," Beecher said, adding that sales from last year's Art in the Park show comprised around a quarter of the guild's sales.

"We're hoping the weather cooperates and we have a great show," Beecher said. "We'll have plenty of art there."

By Julia Davis
jdavis@keepmecurrent.com
July 15, 2008

Lakes: Highland Lake
Regions: Sebago


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