RICHMOND – Royall Gallery will present “Healers as Artists” featuring the paintings of Andre Benoit, MD, of Boothbay Harbor and the sculpture of the late Leo Marcus, DDS, of Whitefield.

There will be an opening reception from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, April 18, for the show scheduled to run through May 11.

Benoit studied painting as an undergraduate at the University of New Hampshire and earned a medical degree from the University of Cincinnati. He performed his residency at Maine General in Augusta. He has been a physician on staff at St. Andrews Hospital in Boothbay Harbor since the late ’70s.

Benoit considers him self a plein-air artist. He enjoys painting outdoors in natural settings and pays particularly close attention to light and shadows. Some of his favorite locations to paint include Monhegan Island, Casco and Penobscot bays, and the Adirondack Mountains.

Marcus was an undergraduate at NYU and attended the University of Pittsburgh Dental School. A World War II veteran, he practiced dentistry until 1981. He began sculpting at age 54. His favorite subject: the human figure in motion. Whether his figures are dancing, playing music, working or exercising, his work encompasses grace, imagination and whimsy. He worked in a variety of different mediums, including, wood, stone, steel, granite, bronze, marble, slate and mixed media. A prolific sculptor, he created more than 250 pieces.

Royall Gallery is at 52 Main St. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday. For more information, call 522-9501 or visit at www.royallgallery.com.

Gallery 302 artist captures African spirit

BRIDGTON – A reception will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday, April 13, at Gallery 302, which is showing artwork by Tobey Diane Grigsby through May 2. Grigsby’s work celebrates the African spirit from those who fought for dignity in South Africa to jazz musicians in America.

Grigsby’s print of Ella Fitzgerald will be up for sale, with proceeds benefiting the Harvest Hills animal shelter as well as an orphanage in Sierra Leone.

Grigsby was born in Michigan and lived most of her life in Indiana. In 2005, she moved to Maine for what would turn out to be the last year-and-a-half of her life. She loved Maine for its beauty, the fact that it was a “blue” state and that it afforded the opportunity to live near family.

She did not talk much about her artwork and rarely signed or titled her work.

This is the first time that a collection of her work is being shown to the public.

The only time Grigsby did anything commercially was when she drew drawings for a coloring book titled “Hard-hatted Women.” She also allowed an adoption agency that a friend was working for to use one of her drawings of children on its brochure cover.

Another Gallery 302 reception will take place from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday, April 25.

Bowdoin College site of Wabanaki Festival

BRUNSWICK – Bowdoin College will host the Wabanaki Festival of Arts 2008 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, April 12, in David Saul Smith Union.

The all-day event will bring artists and craftspeople from all over the state, two drum groups featuring the Sukulis and Burnurwurbskek singers, a root-carving demonstration by Stanley Neptune and Joseph Dana, and native storytelling by John Bear Mitchell.

Forty tables of arts and crafts will be set up throughout Morrell Lounge. Performances will be given in the center of Morrell Lounge; root carving will take place in the second-floor conference room; and storytelling will be in Lamarche Gallery.

Admission is free. For more information, call 798-4338.

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