July 18 - August 9, 2024
KEN DEWAARD
JESSICA LEE IVES
NATHANIEL MEYER
5-7pm THURSDAY, JULY 18
Opening Reception and Camden Art Walk
5pm THURSDAY, JULY 25
Jessica Lee Ives Artist Talk
Exhibition | FAR AS THE EYE CAN SEE
Ken DeWaard, Jessica Lee Ives, Nathaniel Meyer
July 18 - August 9, 2024
Page Gallery is pleased to present FAR AS THE EYE CAN SEE, new paintings by Ken DeWaard, Jessica Lee Ives, and Nathaniel Meyer. The show highlights three artists whose paintings describe the beauty of the natural world and connection to the landscape. A public opening reception will be held Thursday, July 18, 5-7pm. Jessica Lee Ives will present an artist talk Thursday, July 25 at 5pm.
Plein air painter Ken DeWaard is known for his mastery of composition and capturing the romance of life in Maine. DeWaard's paintings create harmonies from the fleeting effects of light and ever-changing color nuances, embracing the rewards and challenges that arise from painting under an open sky. Working on location, DeWaard gets to know the people who work in the small towns and on the waterfront where he paints. His paintings have a personal connection to the landscape and the people who inhabit it.
Ken DeWaard (b. 1962) is a plein air painter based in Hope, Maine. Ken DeWaard studied painting at the American Academy of Art in Chicago and continued his early training at the acclaimed Palette and Chisel Academy of Fine Art. Ken lived and painted in the Driftless area of Wisconsin for 14 years before moving to Maine with his family.
“[Jessica’s paintings] reveal her intense, personal engagement with the complex, often mysterious, act of seeing.” — Suzette McAvoy in Maine Home + Design
Jessica Lee Ives is fascinated by water and our interaction with it. Whether swimming, fishing, or hiking, Camden artist Jessica Lee Ives paints dynamic figures immersed in nature. Brushstrokes create layers of color and swirling movement, building an illusion of reflection and refraction. Subsumed by the movement of water and reflection of sunlight, Ives' figures are inseparable from their natural surroundings. Her paintings transport us to the lake or ice cold ocean, reminding us of healing moments of buoyancy and immersion. Ives' paintings are filled with adventure, vitality, natural beauty, and wonder.
Jessica Lee Ives (née Jessica Stammen) (b. 1980) received her B.F.A. from The Cooper Union School of Art and was named one of Glamour Magazine’s Top Ten College Women of 2003. Her work as an artist-in-residence at Ground Zero in New York City after September 11, 2001 earned her the Clark Foundation Fellowship with which she pursued her self-directed M.A. at New York University’s Gallatin School. Jessica also studied anatomy, physiology, kinesiology, clinical massage and movement, all of which continues to inform her paintings.
“They are bright and clearly delineated landscapes that prioritize intense color and imaginative details. They capture moments of uncanny quirk, scenes so engaging they return to us in our dreams, paroxysms of vision.” --Dan Kany on Nathaniel Meyer’s paintings, Portland Press Herald April 2019
Nathaniel Meyer paints the landscape as an idealized world with elements of fantasy. We are taken beyond reality with Meyer’s perfected forms, his use of saturated colors, and cinematic scale. This is a world of magical realism where the landscape is a familiar vision of Maine’s coast and woods, but with elements a little too strange to believe. Meyer’s paintings are futuristic in aesthetic while rooted in the history of Maine landscape painting and the works of artists like NC Wyeth and Rockwell Kent.
Nathaniel Meyer (b. 1976) is a landscape painter based in South Portland and Corea, Maine. Nathaniel received a BFA in painting from Boston University School of Fine Arts and earned his MFA in visual arts from Lesley University College of Art and Design. Meyer was the 2015 recipient of the Monhegan Artists Residency on Monhegan Island, Maine. Nathaniel Meyer’s work was exhibited and added to the permanent collection of the Munakata Shiko Memorial Museum of Art in Aomori, Japan. In addition to painting, Nathaniel records and performs traditional string band music with Matt Meyer and the Gumption Junction and teaches Drawing, Design, and Color Theory at the University of North Georgia.