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.
Visionary, Founder, Leader of the Maine Art Collective
July 21, 2025
Sue Vittner’s Tranquil Horizons 60 x 48 available at the Maine Art Collective, 9 Moulton Street, Portland, Maine.
Close up of Tranquil Horizons.
Listening, that’s a gift through which Sue Vittner shares her gifts with all of us. Through listening to messages received during meditation, Sue began painting with her fingers. It takes her back to the meditative state and the colors flow with the essence of spirit. A spiritual message that many respond to, a message that can mean one thing to one person and something completely different to another but very satisfying and pleasing to both.
This does not define Sue Vittner, her listening takes many forms:
It’s a gift to have a great inner voice and even more important to listen to that voice. Five years ago, Sue inspired fifteen artist to join her in pop-up collective art gallery on Exchange Street in Portland, Maine. This Collective spoke to a huge need in the area for emerging artists! The Maine Art Collective now has three locations, one year round and two pop-ups featuring the work of 55, yes Fifty-Five Emerging Artists!
Fifty-Five Emerging Artists in Three Locations! Three galleries with a wide variety of styles, themes, fiber artists, pottery and more. The artists are divided up between the locations and some are in more than one and Sue is in all three.
Maine Art Collective’s permanent location:
9 Moulton Street, Portland, Maine 207-807-1044
Pop-ups are located at:
157 Middle Street, Portland, Maine ( just a couple of blocks away from Moulton Street) 207-650-7139
119 Harbor Lane in Perkins Cove, Ogunquit, Maine 207-467-0590
Many years ago, I first saw Sue’s work at the Fine Art Show in Bar Harbor . As I have seen it over the years, it continues to speak louder and louder to me. A few years ago I was looking at a collection of some of her small pieces and saw reflections of my children in each of them. The darker blue abstraction spoke to me of my son and his wife’s love of the ocean, clear grass green brought me to me daughter who loves all things green and the lavender always resonates with my youngest. Each spoke in color with movement that draws you into the image, just as each child draws you into their environment.
One day at the Maine Art Collective a young couple from New York City were purchasing a large painting of Sue’s. It was about six feet long by thirty inches wide. Shaded from light blues, white and medium blue to dark blue with the darker side having a taper on both sides, the husband saw Venus rising with it vertical and the wife felt the sun on the ocean and the oceanic reflection of the distant land. They left with the painting discussing which way to hang the painting and talking about the fact it might have to be rotated occasionally. It sounded like the painting was poised to become an active part of their life, communication and exploration.
This is part one. Part two is a delightful conversation about Sue and her life path. Coming soon!
Jo Eaton, No Repeats Fiberworks, Fiberartist at the Maine Art Collective, Middle Street, Portland, Maine 207-383-0421
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!
The Maine Art Collective is a Pop Up Gallery of Emerging Maine Artists creating art in a wide variety of techniques: Oils, Acrylics, Watercolor, Encaustic, Papercuts, Pen and Ink, Woodworking, Wearable Fiberart, Nature Sculptures in Stone and Wood and a wide variety of original and printed notecards. Art flowing in many directions and delightful in all media.
Thank you for connecting with us during our first five years with three at 157 Middle Street, Portland, Maine. The 30th and 31 are out last days of the 2024 season and we’ll be back, perhaps here, perhaps elseswhere, but we’ll let you know where this talented Collective will be spending 2025! But for now, stop in and visit on our last two days of 2024!
This is a random sampling of what you will find, some are full images, others are partial – just a bit of a tease.
Thanks again for being with us and we’ll see you when the days are long again. Scroll on for a bit of color, joy and fun….
MAC Gallery Snapshots December 2024
Thank you for visiting! This is only a sample of what’s on hand now and our artists will be creating intensively during our winter retreat.
Portland, Maine’s Downtown Holiday Crawl goes on until December 15.
Join us at the Maine Art Collective Gallery to share in celebrating the holidays with original Maine art from Emerging Maine Artists.
As part of the Merry Madness, selected Artists are offering specials on their artwork and we also have a bounty of mini art for gift giving small originals in pen and ink, oils, acrylics, encaustic and paper cutting. Styles range from Abstract to Realism, often depicting the Maine Landscape.
Color, Color, Color explodes in my gardens all summer long. With long, dark, cold winters, I decided to create Winter Flowers on my one of a kind crocheted hats!
In order to get the color and texture of the plants and blossoms, I custom blend yarns that will bring summer back to us. The colors of the flowers also come from blending yarns and once in a while, I will dye the colors I want or will find a person that hand dyes yarns that work in creating the flower details.
There are so many delightful flowers and I always love best whatever is blossoming right now. In my life, I have now I have Christmas Cacti and Sunflower Hats and maybe a Lupine Hat as well.
My hats are created with blended yarns that show off the color and texture of the Maine gardens and landscapes. For these hats the base is a combination of yarns that don’t trigger allergies, acrylics, cottons, rayons, chenilles and other blends. The flowers are often mixes of hand dyed wool, mohair, wool, acrylic and other mixes that I custom blend before I start crocheting.
This Sculptured Sunflower is a large hat, fun to wear for any size head because it holds it shape so proudly!
A recognized Traditional Artist, I continue to explore creating wearable art that celebrates Maine through flowers and landscapes. Learn more about my work at No Repeats Fiberworks/About.
Thank you for visiting with my Sunflower Hats! They are a joy to create and a joy to Share!
Please leave a comment, I’d love to know what you think about my hat explorations.
Now he paints, and still takes a few photographs. The following paintings were done by Jim in the last two years.
Screenshot
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.
Screenshot
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.
??????????
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.
Screenshot
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.
Jo Eaton, No Repeats Fiberworks, speaking on Color.
Today Water, Sand and Sunlight.
I love creating! Yarn, hats, pins, Boho scarves, notecards, nature collages, suncatchers…………… no need to go on, you already get the idea but then behind is a creative impulse driven by color and the love of nature.
Color and Nature! Living in Maine is a sensory experience on so many levels. Just yesterday I stood just ankle deep in the incoming tide at Old Orchard Beach watching the dazzling display of light reflecting off sand and water.
Just inches away were waves of ripples, light reflecting and the ripples of sand created by the waves, sometimes working together for patterns of light other times in cross hatched patterns.
Then when I think is won’t get any more amazing, a wave of lace rolls in.
So, rather, Soooooooo, this inspiration is from yesterday but the joy behind my love of color comes from a life in Maine, being out in the environment throughout my life, first playing with sisters and cousins regardless of the weather or time of day; sun, wind, rain, clouds, snow, fog, cold weather and dark of night — sometimes with a full moon, other times, here in rural Maine, so dark that you truly cannot see your hand in front of your face……
You get the idea, outside. Plenty of togetherness time and plenty of time for exploring a few special places nearby;
a tree house from the backboard of a basketball hoop somehow leveraged into a wide arms of a Pine branches
a circle of Cedars punctuated with Jack in the Pulpits
a fresh field of snow glistening in the new day surrounded by Balsam Firs with their deep green spills coated with a fresh new white blanket backed by a brilliant blue sky
freshly opened Daisies and Black Eyed Susans nodding along the dirt roads
gravel roads lined with the glowing Pearly Everlasting
stands of White Birch catching your eye as you travel by and distant mountains dusky blue on the horizon in the summer
and our dear Katahdin silver and white against that cerulean, blue sky of winter.
My website is www.norepeatsfiberworks.com currently showing my historic hats and soon to feature my Maine Landscape hats. Visit my website and write to me about how you interact with color.
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 