Auburn painter Pam Gilbert puts the final touches on her plan to open a gallery and studio.
AUBURN – Pam Gilbert has a good eye.
A professional artist, she sees details where others might only notice an impression. She discerns a multitude of colors in what some call a muddy tidal pool. She can see an image emerge from random splotches of color on a canvas and bring that image to life.
And she sees a promising future. A transplant from Westport Island near Wiscasset, Gilbert is opening a studio and gallery on Court Street in what was once a furniture store.
“I looked in, and said ‘This is it,'” said Gilbert, who also plans to offer art classes from the white clapboard building.
The big east-facing windows let in lots of sun, and the openness of the space appealed to her. She’s been renovating the interior for a year, erecting a few walls to carve out a kitchen, bedroom and bathroom for living space.
Along two bead-board walls she has displayed her art. Most are watercolors done in a style that Gilbert describes as a cross between Impressionism and Realism.
“Watercolor is my passion,” said Gilbert, as she strolled from one painting to another, many of which showing subjects from her coastal life, such as sailboats and lighthouses. She said she’s anxious to start painting her new environs – especially the cities’ wonderful brick buildings and Lake Auburn.
“L-A has a lot to offer an artist,” she said. In particular, she’s a big fan of The Public Theatre and of the area’s natural resources. The housing prices aren’t bad either.
Gilbert said she paid $52,500 for her building. She guessed she couldn’t touch similar space on Westport Island for less than $200,000.
She said she started searching for a place more than a year ago, after her husband died and she felt life on the island was too confining. Her daughter lives in Greene, and the central location of the city allows her to travel easily to other places. She’s recently had one-woman shows at Bowdoin College and Slate’s restaurant in Hallowell. And she’s working on her bachelor’s degree in fine arts at the University of Maine at Augusta.
The location also allows her a manageable commute to Freeport, where she’s an aquatics instructor at Casco Bay YMCA.
Someday she’d like to give up her day job and devote herself exclusively to her art. But that’s not practical yet, so the gallery and studio is a bridge to that ultimate goal.
In the meantime, she’s spreading art appreciation wherever and however she can. She recently talked to students at Auburn’s Webster School for Career Day. And she’s offering free studio time to artists without studio space. She hopes other local artists will drop by to swap ideas and inspiration once the studio opens.
And she wants to help people develop their artistic potential.
“I’d like to have students who are people who’ve wanted to try drawing and painting, but haven’t had the opportunity,” she said.
In fact, she hopes by keeping her teaching fees reasonable, she’ll be able to attract people of all ages and backgrounds to her classes. She intends to charge $10 per class and limit the size to no more than six people. She’ll offer classes in watercolors and drawing.
Gilbert plans to celebrate her gallery and studio with an open house on Sunday, Sept. 28 from 6 to 8 p.m. She’s keeping her fingers crossed that she’ll finish all her preparations by then, but she’s not worried. For her, this gallery is a cross between an adventure and a leap of faith.
“Artistic people are like that,” she said. “We take chances.”
Comments are no longer available on this story