NORWAY — Main Street Art Gallery, 426 Main St., continues its summer season with a First Friday Reception from 5 to 7 p.m. Sept. 6. The gallery exhibits the work of fine artists and artisans living and working in Western Maine.

September’s featured artist is Jo Northrop Thomas, who works with ripped paper and actual white birch bark. Each collage contains hundreds of pieces of paper and resembles mosaic sculptures.

Her work has been exhibited and has won awards at the University of Wisconsin, University of Vermont and the Southern Adventist University in Collegedale, Tennessee.

Thomas worked as an artist, sculptor and art director for the Civic Arts League Inc. in Chattanooga for 10 years, and was a founding member of an en plein air group called The Outdoor Girls. Her work continues to be featured at several galleries in Tennessee, Georgia, Vermont and Maine.

In 2016, she won first place at the 49th annual Norway Arts Festival for her “rip and tear” art of a collage titled “Nature’s Candy.” In 2018, at the annual festival, she won an honorable mention. Last spring Thomas spent a week of en plein air painting in Monet’s Garden in Giverny, France, with artists from Hawaii, Illinois, Georgia and Tennessee. She is a member of the Western Maine Art Group, Burlington City Arts in Vermont and the Civic Arts League in Chattanooga. She continues to be inspired by friends and family and all the natural beauty that surrounds her.

The Main Street Gallery is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10  a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.

For more information, art classes, demonstrations and special trips sponsored by the WMAG, visit westernmaineartgroup.org and on Facebook under Main Street Gallery. The galleries are free and open to the public.

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