Mary Armstrong | Troposphere @ 12 Kilometers of Heaven
May 24 - July 6, 2014

Mary Armstrong has been painting the landscape near her home and studio in Robinhood Cove in Georgetown, south of Bath, Maine, for many years. “In every moment,” she says, “I am in awe of the dance between earth, water, and sky.” In this group of recent paintings, she creates the illusion of a vast and endless space that is full of incidence and light.

For Armstrong, the act of painting is a search, and her images — built up of many layers of oil paint and wax on wood panel — bear witness to the intense process of discovery. “I am striving, in my daily practice in the studio,” she says, “to continually improvise from my perceptions. This makes the process very active…and I am always interested in discovering how our assumptions about imagery in painting prejudice our expectation of how those paintings are made.”

Mary Armstrong splits her time among Georgetown, Maine; Venice, Italy; and Newton, Massachusetts, where she teaches painting at Boston College. She received her BFA in 1972 from Boston University and in 1977 was awarded a scholarship to attend the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture. Since 1980, she has exhibited in solo and group shows in museums and galleries throughout the United States and Ireland.

Armstrong has received numerous honors and awards, including fellowships from the Ballinglen Arts Foundation, Ballycastle, Ireland, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and grants from the New England Foundation for the Arts and the Artists Foundation.

Opening Reception: Saturday, May 24, 4-6pm.

CMCA is grateful for the generous support from main media sponsor Maine Home + Design magazine.