CYNTHIA WININGS GALLERY : A PLACE APART

When you step through the front door of the Cynthia Winings Gallery in Blue Hill, you enter one of the most dynamic and engaging art spaces in Maine. The humble façade (the building was once a barn) belies its compelling contents, from choice Maine landscapes and thought-provoking narrative and figurative work to abstract and conceptual art of the first order. Two floors of aesthetic surprises and delights await the art aficionado. And a new sculpture garden welcomes you to walk around outdoors and find contemporary sculpture artfully placed in the landscape. Like her predecessor Judith Leighton (1929-2011), Winings (pronounced “winnings”) is an artist with a discerning appreciation for the new and enticing. She is a consummate gallerist: professional, focused, welcoming. Responsible to her artists and her audience, she deftly curates each exhibition to showcase some of the freshest work being done in Maine, by established and up-and-coming artists. The artwork in her shows often carries on a kind of visual dialogue from wall to wall. Expressive, intriguing, inventive—those are some of the adjectives that come to mind. Mediums are many and diverse: in addition to oil paintings, you’ll find ceramics, collage, fiber pieces and sculptures. Now in its twelfth season, the Cynthia Winings Gallery has become a prized part of the community and region. From mid-May to mid-October the place is humming: an evening of performance art, a lively opening reception, a First Friday poetry reading. “I want to provide a cultural venue where people can get away from their day-to-day lives and be inspired,” says Winings. A retreat for refreshing the mind and soul while pleasing the eye—that’s a commendable goal and one that gallery-goers across Maine appreciate as summer rolls around again.