By Emma Bouthillette
Staff Writer
Despite fog and the threat of rain, 55 artists set up easels around Kennebunkport Sunday for the fourth annual Paint the Port event.
After registering at the Knott House, artists disbursed to scenic locations.
“I don’t mind the fog. It is giving me a softer picture to work with,” said Iona Desmond of Old Orchard Beach.
Desmond worked at the end of the bridge on Spring Street facing the stores in Dock Square. She created a scene of the storefronts in soft pastels. Desmond is a retired South Portland art teacher. She said she has participated in Paint the Port every year and her piece sold for $400 last year.
Shirley Sotir of Ocean Park had difficulty with the fog as she tried to render the landscape of the Kennebunk River in pastel.
“I’m working on this view that keeps disappearing and coming back,” Sotir said.
Sotir was one of the first artists to participate in Paint the Port, she said. In past years, she set up by the Knott House. This year she said she changed her location for a different perspective. Sotir said her artwork sells at Gallery 265 in Biddeford for between $200 and $300.
Caren Marie Mitchell of Westbrook nestled herself beside a utility pole in the parking lot of the Clamshack. She sketched the outline for her acrylic painting “Welcome to Kennebunkport.” The blank canvas became a scene of the bridge looking toward Dock Square including the welcome sign.
Paintings produced by artists were auctioned off Sunday evening during a cocktail reception at the Nonantum Resort in Kennebunkport. Artists could chose to donate 100 percent or 50 percent of the selling price for their artwork. The event’s proceeds benefit Heartwood College of Art and the Kennebunkport Historical Society.
“I really appreciate the work Heartwood does and it also benefits local artists. I can’t afford to make a 100 percent donation and I can’t afford to make a cash donation, but I will receive 50 percent of what this piece is auctioned off for tonight,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell said she generally sells similar paintings for $625.
Heartwood’s President Berri Kramer worked on a marsh landscape across from Chick’s Marina on Ocean Avenue. Kramer took a photograph of the landscape before the fog rolled in. She said she was concerned the weather was affecting her pastels.
Some 200 guests turned out for the auction Sunday night and artwork sales totaled $18,000.
“It wasn’t as much as last year, but considering the economy, it is what we were hoping for,” Kramer said.