Sally Loughridge Gallery

 Welcome to this web gallery of my original artwork.  I paint in watercolor, oil, and soft pastel.  Each medium has its own appeal.  The surprises inherent in wet-in-wet watercolor painting are exciting.  With oils, the process of mixing, layering and glazing hues of different values and temperature is engaging and rhythmic. 

Soft pastel is a medium of particular vibrancy and immediacy.  Almost pure pigment with minimal binder, pastel gives paintings a richness of color and stroke that is both characteristic and striking.  By their shape and concentration of pigment, pastel sticks may be used in a linear or painterly manner, or some combination of the two.  Preparing my own surfaces for pastel painting  gives me the freedom to vary the texture and tone of the ground.

I enjoy combining media, such as using acrylic or watercolor as an underpainting for a soft pastel work. I have also been experimenting with gold metal leaf in combination with either oil or soft pastel. 

My paintings reflect my love of the Maine coast, where sea, sky, and land meet in myriad and compelling ways. I am fascinated by shifts of weather, time of day and season which bring changes in light, shadow, and mood to each scene before me.  I try to convey my response to and interpretation of the light play that enwraps the natural world and excites me.

Monhegan Island has a special draw for me, as it has for well over a hundred years for other artists.  Extended stays with five painting friends each September on the island are invigorating, challenging and satisfying.   For the last four years we have shown our Monhegan work on the Mid Coast. Our next show, Monhegan Perspectives V, will return to Archipelago Fine Arts in Spring 2013.

A slightly larger group of painting friends will have its third show, Painting Maine III, at Damariscotta River Grill July 30 - September 17. This group includes both traditional and more contemporary approaches to the landscape and interiors.  The exhibit and sale will feature soft pastel, oil, acrylic and watercolor works. I am showing my work this year at Archipelago in Rockland, Mast Cove Galleries in Kennebunkport, Pemaquid Art Gallery in Bristol, and Tidemark Gallery in Waldoboro.   

I am now happily exploring another artistic interest, that of jewelry design. I am making one of a kind jewelry with silver, other metals, beads, crystals, and found objects. As in my paintings, each piece is inspired by a palette of nature's hues, shapes and shades. I hope you will visit the Jewelry Gallery on this site.

The Soft Pastel Gallery includes a selection of sold and currently available work created with soft pastels and at times, soft pastel with acrylic or gold metal leaf.   The  Oil Gallery shows a similar mix of sold and available works.  Please feel free to contact me about a specific painting.  You may also order limited edition prints through the "Prints and Shows" page. I invite your comments on my paintings and this site. Thank you for visiting!

BOOK

When I had breast cancer in 2010, painting helped me endure and heal emotionally.  During the time between my diagnosis and the start of radiation, I experienced a rush of powerful emotions,  which I could not always name.  By creating a small painting every day after my treatment, I hoped I would find solace, distraction, and release.  Each five-by-seven-inch spontaneous painting was made in twenty minutes or less. I did not want to think too much. The paintings themselves were not intended to be art per se; rather, the process of creating them was the critical element in my coping strategy.  This sequence of thirty-three paintings, together with corresponding log entries has become a book, to be published soon by the American Cancer Society.  I will place a link here when the book becomes available.