Western Maine Art Group converts to cooperative
By Jim Smedley
Staff Writer

NORWAY – Some used watercolors, some oils and others preferred color pencils.

Six-year-old Carly Sauro, who was there with her mom, just had a No. 2 lead pencil that she intently worked to create a figure.

However, that’s what the artists were using this week.

The mediums and subjects at the Wednesday meeting of the Western Maine Group Co-operative could change by next week.

It pretty much depends on what they want to do.

The Wednesday group, varying from 10 to 15 members per meeting, has been coming to the Lajos Matolcsy Art Gallery at 480 Main St. for about nine years.

The group started under the auspices of the Western Maine Art Group, which became the Western Maine Art Group Co-Op on June 24.

Brenda Ellis-Sauro, secretary for the organization and Carly’s mom, said the changing times and membership were the catalysts for becoming a co-operative.

“The work of operating the group was falling on the same board members for years,” Ellis-Sauro said. “And it takes a lot of work to keep this place going. Basically we became a co-op just to get re-involvement, reorganize and restructure.”

The cooperative membership is limited to 30 people who have to pay a yearly fee to hang their work in the gallery. They also have to donate their time in various capacities and work on a committee.

The cooperative group refurbished the downstairs portion of the gallery and added two rows of panels to hang more artwork on.

The building was originally a schoolhouse.

Helen Morton of Newry, one of three remaining charter members, remembers the building in the late 1960s when Matolcsy and his wife took it over.

She said his wife taught ballet downstairs and he taught art upstairs.

Morton still comes in to paint.

Susan Sweetser of Bryant Pond, who has been a member and has been painting since 1997, was involved in a long-term project. She was near completion on a portrait of her grandson. She said she has always dabbled in the arts in one way or another and until she began painting had been involved in Native American crafts.

June Dragoon from Peru has been a member since the Wednesday group began. She had worked in oils, but recently has been using watercolors. She has the Hillside Gallery in her home and paints a lot of New England landscapes, florals, ocean and mountain scenes and gardens.

Kathy Anderson, who moved to Westport Island about five years ago from Norway, started the Wednesday group.

“The building was pretty much vacant and I figured it should be used,” Anderson said. “It was a gallery, but not used to its full potential.”

Carol Phaneuf of Harrison said she has been coming to the Wednesday group since 1994 and using watercolors since 1990 when she and her husband lived in a condominium.

“We were renting a condo and oils can be very messy,” Phaneuf said. “So I decided that I didn’t want to get oil on a rug I didn’t own, so I switched to watercolors.

“I never got a watercolors on the rug,” she said.

Phaneuf and other members agreed that meeting every Wednesday for some art and conversation was fun, a nice pastime and a wonderful way to make friends.

“It’s good therapy,” she said.