This exhibit at Blue Water Fine Arts Gallery in Port Clyde, going on now through August 15, showcases the virtuoistic hand and delicate sensibilities of internationally recognized artist Barbara Ernst Prey who has painted powerful, vibrant views of her surroundings for three decades. On display are 30 poignant watercolors, Soliloquies, unspoken reflections on island life as a microcosm of sustainability: islands telling a story of sustainable life.

image: Netmender, Watercolor, 22″ x 30″ courtesy of Barbara Ernst Prey

Also included are her early works for The New Yorker Magazine and paintings exhibited in her recent Paris retrospective, which the Wall Street Journal selected as their Paris museum choice. Benjamin Gennochio writes in the New York Times about Prey’s paintings, “Like all of us, artists are aware of what is going on in the world, and in some cases there is a sense that these pictures of pristine nature are also about the end of it – notably in Barbara Ernst Prey’s paintings.”

Barbara’s artwork is included in major public collections in the U.S. including The Brooklyn Museum, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the New York Historical Society, and The White House and her paintings are on exhibit at The White House, The Kennedy Space Center and United States Embassies.

An esteemed figure in the art world, she was appointed by the President of the United States to the National Council on the Arts, the advisory board for the National Endowment for the Arts. She was invited to paint the official White House Christmas Card and is currently part of the Smithsonian Institution’s travelling exhibit NASA Art:50 Years.

Barbara Ernst Prey was the featured artist in Maine Food & Lifestyle magazine’s Issue 2008 #2. For more information on the current Soliloquy exhibit:

Blue Water Fine Arts, Main St., Port Clyde.  10-5 p.m. 372-8087 www.bluewaterfinearts.com inquiries@bluewaterfinearts.com

MF&L Staff at Maine Food & Lifestyle magazine.