In October, the Jackson Memorial Library in Tenants Harbor will host “The Quietudes: Portrait Series from a Cottage by the Sea,” by Rockland artist Avis Turner.

Begun during Covid and continuing today, “The Quietudes” emerged from small pencil sketches in the artist’s notebook. To bring them alive, she applies many layers of watercolor paint to full-size pencil drawings.

“As with my sculptures, these portraits arrive like poems, from intuitive, dreamlike places,” said Turner. 

“They come to tell me their stories,” she continues. “Arriving, sometimes as mythical or winged persons, they take their places by open windows to the sea. They bring their objects and their tasks – things such as tea cups, playing cards, and the mending of bird wings. They participate in magic, collect stones on plates and rainwater in bowls. They celebrate the seasons of ancient Celtic calendars and full moons. They have tea with ospreys.” 

Turner Avis is a retired art teacher and professor. She moved to Maine in 2014, where she began to restore a small house which was originally built in 1847. Her “cottage by the sea” now has vegetable and flower gardens, a small pollinator meadow, and her studio. She lives there with her German Shepherd, Elodie.  

The show will be on display at the Jackson Memorial Library through Wednesday, October 29.

An opening reception will take place Wednesday, October 1, from 4:30 to 5:45 p.m. Light refreshments will be served.