An Open House and Gathering of Artists from the three Maine Art Collective Galleries, Perkins Cove, Ogunquit; Middle Street and Moulton Street, Portland. Join us to meet the artists who are gathering to thank and celebrate our art community.
The January 11, 2026 12-2 PM
Maine Art Collective, 9 Moulton Street, Portland, ME
Coming from any direction, The Maine Art Collective on Moulton Street is just steps from Fore and Commercial Streets in the Heart of the Old Port.
Click Middle Street to hear form the Middle Street artists saying Thank you for a Great Year!
You’re invited! Come mingle with us at our first MAC Mingle at Moulton this Sunday, January 11, from 12–2pm. There will be refreshments, music, and plenty of MAC artists from all three galleries to meet and connect with.
We hope this note finds you well-rested, healthy, and enjoying a fresh start to the New Year.
Over the past few days, I’ve been working on our 2025 1099s, and it’s filled me with so much gratitude. Thanks to your support, MAC was able to help 56 local artists show and sell their work this past year. We truly couldn’t do this without you, and we’re deeply appreciative of the role you play in making our mission possible.
Our Middle Street location in Portland is now closed for the season. If the space is available, we’re hopeful to return with a pop-up gallery in May. In the meantime, we’re grateful to be working with our landlords to keep the storefront “activated,” so you can still enjoy a bit of window shopping—many artists currently have work displayed and available for purchase in the windows.
We’re also excited to share that five artists from our sister galleries have joined us for the winter season at our Moulton Street gallery. There’s lots of new artwork to see, and we hope you’ll stop in. Please note our winter hours at 9 Moulton Street are Thursday–Sunday, 10am–5pm.
With sincere thanks and warm wishes for the year ahead,
The Maine Art Collective’s Pop-Up at 157 Middle Street, Portland closes for the season on December 31 at 4:00PM, Popping up again in May 2026.
The MAC Artists thank you for another artful, delightful season. The MAC’s Ogunquit Perkin’s Cove Gallery closed on December 21 and will reopen in April and the newest location at 9 Moulton Street, Portland is the year-round location.
MAC Middle Street Artists are saying Thank You with a closing sale with numerous artists offering discounts of 25%. Here’s a sampling of artists (underlined artists have a link to their information) that are offering discounts at this time.
Julia Van Daam works in multiple media types: Photography, Painting, Pottery and Historic Photo Reclamation. All items at 25% discount.
Annie McClain delights us with birds that are appearing and disappearing, ethereal landscapes, and works that range in size to draw us in or to widen our perspective. All of Anne’s work is 25% off.
Lisa Bard takes the work of recycling seriously, creating her paintings on recycled canvases, wood and even on her Kindness Rocks, a pocket or desktop reminder for Kindness everyday. Her artistry delights with its colors, whimsey and depth. All of Lisa’s work is 25% off.
Tamara Savage Clay loves Maine and celebrates it with flowers and ocean landscapes. She and her husband positioned themselves where any daily errands, school bus rides or work take them beside or over the North Atlantic. She has another wall of work in the gallery with her ocean paintings. Her paintings are 25% off.
Marcia Fuller delights in her versality! Once a painting, now an embellished canvas print, a scarf, purse, pouch, print or notecard! What delicious representations of our state from her island home to Stonington, the town at the end of land reaching out into the Atlantic Ocean only bounded by distant islands. Her work is 25% off.
Jo Eaton creates a wide variety of one of a kind hats that include Maine Landscape hats, Handdyed handspun Abstract Flower Garden Hats, simple beanies and more. These are being offered at 25% off and her needlefelted heart pins range from $20 to $27 and now all $20 and 3 for $50.
Several other other artists are offering 25% discount including:
Maine Art Collective’s First Friday, November 7 from 5-8 PM 157 Middle Street, Portland, ME
Blue Venus, 16 x 20, Mixed Media
Tam Veilleux’s joy and passions bubble over in many ways, working with art, astrology, coaching and facing life daily with joy. We get to share in that joy when experiencing her artwork.
This Friday night at 6 PM during the Creative Portland’s Artwalk, Maine Art Collective member, Jo Eaton will lead you through a visit with Tam’s art, cards, and impressions on life. As an artist, coach, visionary she offers encouragement for facing life with love, joy and humor.
As an Astrojunkie (her definition,) she brought together many perspectives, reflections and inspirations for your personal journey in The Energy Almanac.
Tam is traveling this week, but we are taking this opportunity to explore her work and will have her in person in the coming weeks.
Thank you for visiting and we hope to see you soon!
Sue Vittner saw a need for emerging artists to share their work in a pop-up setting that lasted more than a weekend!
It’s five years since fifteen artists that agreed with her to try a two-month Pop-Up Art Gallery on Exchange Street in Portland that lasted for five months. They are now part of a fifty-one artist working group called The Maine Art Collective that brings fresh and affordable art to Southern Maine and all that visit here (art is shipped across the US regularly.)
The fifty-one artists divided between the three galleries (open daily 10- 6, staffed by artists) with some artists represented in more than one. Sue’s paintings are in all three galleries.
This year also introduces a year-round gallery: 9 Moulton Street, Portland, Maine
May through December Pop-Ups: 157 Middle Street, Portland, Maine 119 Perkins Cove, Ogunquit, Maine
Original acrylic painting (60″ x 48″) by Sue Vittner. During a meditation session, she was told to paint with her hands, it’s now twelve years later. Her paintings vary in size from 6″ X 6″ to 72″ x 48″. Thier abstract quality speaks differently to each person. One day at Maine Art Collective, a couple left discussing how they were going to handle their differing perspectives on the painting by changing how they would rotate it occasionally.
But Who is Sue Vittner? Truly a collaborator, a leader in spite of herself, she did accept the title of founder of Maine Art Collective. She is a beam of light and energy that is translated through a variety of mediums: Art, Massage, Human Design, Hand Analysis Readings and Coaching. I asked Sue if we could have a conversation about her life and workand here it is.
A Conversation with gifted healer, founder, dancer and visionary Sue Vittner.
At the end of a delightful conversation with Sue Vittner, a woman of many talents, I asked her what her main goal was. She responded, My work is to help people relax and connect to the deepest, most spiritual and joyous parts of themselves. She does this through a variety of mediums: art, massage therapy, coaching, Human Design, and founding and leading the Maine Art Collective.
What from your early life helped you trust and follow your instincts? Sue: Oh wow, that’s a good question! In college, I resisted picking a major because I didn’t want to be boxed into one thing. By junior year, I kept getting flyers in my mailbox saying, ‘You have to pick a major.’ I loved the variety of classes, but eventually chose English since I was going abroad to England. I’ve never been drawn to the typical American dream, and my parents have always supported me in exploring different paths.
So did they find it interesting or did they just love you a lot? Sue: Haha, I guess both! My parents have always had this attitude of, ‘Oh, that’s just Sue.’ Like, who knows what she’s up to now—for example when I went to work as a janitor in Antarctica, they had to acclimate to that one! They just love me and accept that I’m a little different.
That’s cool, so how did you find a job in Antarctica? Susan: I had been dating someone, and after we broke up he went down to Antarctica to work as a plumber. We stayed in touch, and the next year I wanted to go too—I thought it would be amazing to have that opportunity to travel and see incredible things. I wasn’t a scientist, so I figured, why not be a janitor? The scientists down there need support staff.
So there’s a practicality that emerges here about the next step of whatever you’re doing? Sue: Yes, that’s true.
So has that been consistently true for you? Sue: Yeah, I guess you could say that! I’m also very dependable, even though I’ve taken lots of different paths and tried many things. There’s always been this underlying sense of responsibility—whether it’s taking care of something or just paying my bills. So even though I’m free-spirited, I’m also grounded, and I think I’ve always been that way.
Retreat Acrylic 72″ x 24″
That’s great. A visionary with a great combination of skills, dependability and determination. As you’ve been going through all of these different things that you’ve done, did you ever have any vision that art would come into it? Sue: Art has always been in the periphery of my life—whether I was drawing, painting, or making something creative. For years I made quilts, often as gifts for friends or sisters when they had babies, and I’d even draw portraits of their infants to give as keepsakes. I’ve always loved giving artistic gifts. When I lived in Texas, I showed some watercolors and photography in a couple of local art shows, and back in college I took a lot of art classes. Creativity has just always been there, woven into everything I do.
Do you find your art changes with all of the work you’re doing with Human Design, palm reading and coaching? The work you do around different aspects of human development? Sue: I think the biggest shift in my work came when I started painting with my hands. Given how long I’ve been doing massage, it felt like a natural extension, but it really started after a meditation where I suddenly had this vision of finger painting. It came out of the blue, and I remember thinking, ‘What was that about?’—but it ended up opening something new for me.
How long ago was that? Sue: 10 or 11 years ago
I think I first met you in Bar Harbor, and in my mind I had placed it that you started doing that about 10 to 12 years ago. Sue: OK, yeah I didn’t remember that’s where I first met you!
I did Mark Fink’s shows a few times. Sue: Was it that stormy weekend?
Yes, I was there several before that and the one where we had to take everything down and then come back on Sunday to set up again. Sue: Yes, that was crazy!
Yeah, that was quite something, setting up on Friday am, taking down Friday night, then setting up and taking down again on Sunday. Well, hurricanes win, one way of the other.
Do you find people saying, “How can you be doing all of these diverse things?” Sue: Yes, yes, I get that a lot. I chalk it up to being a Manifesting Generator according to my Human Design chart, which means I’m really good at multi-tasking, like I’m a multi-passionate person and I’d get bored doing just one thing!
Are they all fitting together easily for you? Keeping track of them that is? Sue: Yeah, I would say many things I do are seasonal, whether it’s like the actual season to be doing something or even if it’s just honoring the ebb and flow of my energy. So sometimes there’s more emphasis on the galleries, spring and summer, and then in winters time is freed up to focus on Human Design. And my massage therapy practice, which I’ve been doing for over 20 years, is always running in the background. That’s what helps keep me the most grounded.
How did Human Design come about? Sue: I had a Hand Analysis Reading done many years ago, and I was fascinated by how on target it was. Years later Todd and I were traveling in California, and we visited a used book store in which I found a CD course on hand reading that I listened to over and over again. Eventually I began taking actual classes with her which included Human Design.
Nice Sue: Often my life works this way…I just say yes to things and the universe will put something in front of me, and if it’s interesting, I’ll follow that thread. Which is actually how the galleries got going also!
Yes, yes it’s quite amazing. I’m really happy to be part of all of this excitement. Sue: We’re happy to have you!
How many people are involved in the Maine Art Collective Galleries now that there are three of them? Sue: 51 artists. A few artists are in more than one of the galleries. We have a variety of artists in the different galleries, potters, jewelers, fiber artists and woodworkers.
That’s great! Could you ever have imagined that? Three galleries! Sue: When we first started, the hardest thing was finding the artists. That was the biggest challenge, to find enough artists to make the numbers work. Now they’re calling every week wondering if they can be part of it?
That’s great. How many did you have when you first set up on Exchange Street? Sue: There were 15 of us that first year. We planned on it being a two month pop-up, and then we just kept going month-to-month until December.
And how did you find the Middle Street location? Sue: We were just looking for a vacant spot. We looked at a lot of different places in town that were empty and found the Middle Street location. Since they hadn’t rented it in many years, we were able to negotiate a reasonable rent on a month to month basis.
That’s great. I still love it. Sue: Yes
I really like that spot, you know that!
Do you have a specific painting that you’ve done that really stands out for you? Has there ever been one that you really like? Sue: I think it’s when I do the really big pieces—like the 60 x 48, with that blue horizon line. When one of those comes together and it’s finished, I just go, ‘Wow.’ For me, it’s all about expression and a sense of infinity—like the ocean, the mountains, or the sky. It feels like capturing that expansive feeling on canvas.
That’s wonderful. That is wonderful and I think that definitely is what hypnotizes people.
So is there anything else you’d like to share about your work? Maybe you could put into words how all the different parts of your work tie together? Sue: OK Well, I have a mission statement for myself and my work. It is to help people relax and connect to the deepest, most spiritual and joyous parts of themselves.
Wow, that’s wonderful! Sue: It’s definitely the common thread in all of the things I do through my art, massage, palm reading and human design.
Great, that’s awesome. Well, I think that’s great. Sue. Sue: Thank you so much, Jo, I appreciate you doing this!
Field of Dreams Acrylic 72″ x 36″
To learn more about her diversity, visit her website at: Sue Vittner.com.
Her original painting can be found at the Maine Art Collective Galleries and a wide assortment of prints are available at SueVittner.artstorefronts.com.
Please like, share and comment! We’d love to hear from you!
And come see us at any one of the Maine Art Collective locations!
Free Greeting Card Workshop with Maine Art Collective October 3 and 4! Share Fall stories and make a card. Details Below.
The Maine Art Collective invites you to our First Friday, October 3, 5-8 PM, and Open Galleries, October 4 & 5, 10-6, as part of Maine Craft Weekend at 157 Middle Street and 9 Moulton Street in Portland. Join us for refreshments and meet and greet the Maine Art Collective Local Artists at both locations and then Check Out the Free Fall Greeting Card Workshop at 157 Middle Street.
Maine Art Collection’s 157 Middle Street location will be hosting a Free Fall Card Making Sessions on Friday from 5-8 and on Saturday as from 1-4 PM, as part of the Maine Craft Weekend. Share your favorite fall stories as we make free fall greeting cards together celebrating the wonderful colors of all. Paints, crayons, stencils, stamps, leaf rubbing and more. Sharing our stories in person and create your own note card to share with family and friends.
Welcoming Fall, Welcoming You, Sharing the Colors of Fall!
Artwork, Woodworking and Photography from the Fall Foliage Room at Maine Art Collective, 157 Middle Street, Portland, Maine. Other Fall colors throughout the gallery.
First Friday, Maine Art Collective, September 5, 2025
Yellow. Yellow! Yellow?
Fisherman’s Point by Jim O’Reilly
What do you think about Yellow? Please leave a comment about your responses to yellow and how it fits into your life. Then come visit our theme room, which is currently YELLOW!
Come share with the Maine Art Collective during the September 5, 2025 First Friday Art Walk at 157 Middle Street in Portland, Maine. Join us between 5-8 PM for refreshments, visits with Artists and share your responses to yellow.
Just a small preview of our Yellow Room.
We look forward to seeing you, at First Friday or any day between now and December 31 from 10 to 6 daily.
Thank you for visiting with us.
The twenty-three artists of the Maine Art Collective.
The Maine Art Collective (click to meet artists in all three galleries) welcomes visitors and art collectors at two Portland locations and one in Ogunquit:
Pop-Up at 157 Middle Street: A Welcome Preview (click to watch). The The MAC Community Room’s Theme for June is Blue, share your thoughts about blue and enjoy the blue artwork. Blue (click for Blue)
Permanent location at 9 Moulton Street: The Maine Art Collective is expanding again! 2025 brings more Emerging Maine Artists to the Portland Art Scene! MAC is expanding to a second permanent location at 9 Moulton Street just a few steps of Commercial Street in the Old Port.
Our third locations is a Pop-Up in Perkins Cove, Ogunquit which recently opened for the season with a robust crowd of art enthusiasts enchanted with revitalized original location in Perkins Cove with additional artists and delightful appetizers! The devastating storm in January of 2024 destroyed the gallery space and it has now been redone with the attention to creating an amazing artist’s showcase. Gallery walls expand with panels and walls for exhibiting, all delightful.
Maine Art Collective’s mission is to create spaces and opportunities for emerging artists to show and sell their work. We are run by artists in a collective model. Artists get to keep the majority of their profits, so we are able to keep artwork affordable for everyone.
Starfish native to the North Atlantic, browns, tans, orange and sometimes violet.
Thank you for stopping here and please join us at The Maine Art Collective!
Now he paints, and still takes a few photographs. The following paintings were done by Jim in the last two years.
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A life of observation led Jim to spend many childhood hours sketching at the dining room table. Those early watching and drawing sessions soon led to an interest in photography and by the age of 11, he had his hands on a SLR Minolta camera.
We skip forward many years while living by the sea in Maine’s largest city, Portland; his attention was captured by the excitement of living in this city by the sea. It’s often situations where we least know what is next that we find doors opening. Jim lives near Portland where artists, crafters and buskers are encouraged to set up a four foot table and sell their wares. Jim found himself matting photographs and joining Portland’s creative marketplace, anywhere in Portland! Selling his first matted print put his photography into the marketplace and his powers of observation have kept him there and led him to the world of oil painting.
If you have been captivated by the moon over the steeple on Franklin Street, you will find it again in one of Jim’s photos.
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Commerical Street is lined with docks, fine restaurants, funky restaurants, tour boats, shops of all sorts and a ferry terminal for the island ferries and for large cruise ships coming for a visit to our fair city. Nestled in the midst of all of this is a working harbor, fishing boats bringing in fresh fish and seafood, one dock away from large cruise ships in one direction, small marinas, and even yacht sales right next to the Lobster place on commercial st.
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In his own words:
I’m often told that I have a knack for composition. “You have an eye!” is a phrase I hear over and over. To some extent I think it’s just an innate ability although the ability has been nurtured in certain ways. From a very young age I’ve simply been an astute observer of my surroundings and landscapes in particular. I do a lot of staring and thinking about what I’m seeing. I do this because I find it beautiful and satisfying to take in.
I notice shape, contrast and color relationships. By understanding what I find beautiful in the scene, I then know what I want to include in my frame.
When I look through my viewfinder, I have a very natural ability to know when I’ve found a good composition. You have to understand that what you see through the camera, is your photograph.
When I first began photography, I paid little attention to aperture and shutter speed, allowing the built in light meter to guide my decisions. This freed me up to think only about composition. But what should be understood is that I wasn’t really “thinking” about composition but rather knowing what I liked when I saw it. Instead of taking five pictures of a scene, take 50. You may end up only liking the last two you took. Move around. zoom in and out, crouch down or lay down.
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In theory, my compositional ability might translate to my paintings as well. I still consider myself a beginner in the realm of oil painting and have plenty of room for improvement
For a chance to observe Jim’s observations, stop by The Maine Art Gallery, 157 Middle Street, Portland and at craft shows. Visit Jim online on Instagram, local art shows and sometimes at First Fridays by the Portland Art Museum.
Ahh, Maine the way life should be…that is our state motto and how true it is. I am a transplanted New Yorker living in and inspired by this beautiful, peaceful state of Maine.
From my retreat in coastal Maine or my home in southern Maine, I am frequently inspired by the landscape and loving the atmospheric changes that happen daily here along the edge of the North Atlantic. My work is truly inspired by my surroundings.
Richmond Island from Kettle Cove, Maine
Working in acrylics provides a medium for sharing the vibrancy and depth of colors I find around me.
As a child I was surrounded by art in some form in the hustle and bustle of NYC. At home and in the city, there was always art happening. I was exposed and encouraged to explore all mediums from a very young age. Creativity has always been part of my life; coming home from school and find the walls hand stenciled or the living room ceiling covered with hanging handmade glittery star bursts! My mom was always creating, sketching, sewing or crafting. Both grandmothers also were avid hand crafters or makers as we call them today.
Beech Hill, Acadia National Park, Maine
About 2018, I transitioned from watercolor to acrylic for the control, vibrancy and the texture-and I love it! I paint in my home studio in Cape Elizabeth.
I have always loved taking workshops and classes and I have had the good fortune to study with many talented artists who have influenced my work. I also create jewelry, knit and have a small consulting firm. My husband and I share two Maine Coon Cats and they rule the roost!!
Gallery Opening on June 7, 2024 from 5-7 PM Meet Julia and share in Refreshments, meet more of the MAC artists and check out what everyone has been working on this winter!
Julia joined the Maine Art Collective in 2024 at the 157 Middle Street, Portland, Maine location. Often working in Pen and Ink, Julia’s drawings and paintings, and occasionally a print, catch people’s attention with her whimsically eclectic images.
Originally drawing inspiration from the surrounding nature of the rural midwest, Julia spent her childhood running through grassy fields and gazing up at stars, or deep in the pages of a fantasy fiction novel. Viewing her art, she captivates your interest as you are drawn into the depth of her visions. After the image generally catches your interest, you look closer and are drawn deeper and deeper into her vision. Often times, it’s a journey away from the day to day reality. Such a fun excursion and your can take them home and travel into her images frequently.
She moved to the East Coast to pursue an Illustration and Fine Arts degree at the Art Institute of Boston and currently resides in the beautiful state of Maine. Now many of her images are reflecting her new home, here near out great North Atlantic Ocean.
Her work was featured in “Pop-Ups at the Press” in 2023 hosted by The Press Hotel in Portland. She was also invited as a local artist to take part in the “Flying Colors: Benefit Art Auction” at the Children’s Museum and Theatre of Maine in 2024, where her piece “Print of Scarborough Marsh” was successfully auctioned.
Julia became a member artist of the Maine Art Collective in May of 2023. Last summer she was busy creating even when it was her turn to tend the gallery. With her sketchbook in hand, pen, ink and paper on the desk, talking about art did not slow down her work.
Julia is looking forward to another great year in the gallery for 2024! Come to Maine Art Collective, 157 Middle Street, Portland to see her new art.
Julia calls her business Shnurgle. “Shnurgle” : Defined loosely as a light-hearted, slightly goofy, always playful interaction of affection and joy. A word that originated between my sister and I growing up that encapsulates loving and hilarious incidents.
Art in Maine 