Holmquist and Parsons featured in new Archipelago show

Archipelago Fine Arts, the Island Institute's art gallery at 386 Main Street in Rockland, will feature landscapes by two well-known Maine artists, Brita Holmquist and Herbert Parsons, in its 2010 Spring Show, Horizons: Views of Penobscot Bay. The show runs through June 19.

Born in New York City, Brita Holmquist spent her early years surrounded and influenced by art, regularly summering on Islesboro.

After studying at the Moore College of Art in Philadelphia and with Richard Serrin in Florence, Italy, she settled in Cumberland, Maine, where she lives and works during the winter months. She still spends summers on Islesboro, where she does much of her work, and her familiarity with the islands contributes substantially to her art.

Brita is a co-founder of 10x10, a group of ten artists who organize an annual show, and the Peregrine Press, a cooperative artists' press. Actively involved in local organizations, she has served on the board of the Maine Festival, the Portland Arts Council, the artists' advisory panel to the Maine Commission, and the advisory board of the Institute of Contemporary Art at the Maine College of Art. While primarily a regional artist, Brita has exhibited in galleries throughout the country and in Italy. Her work is in the collections of the Portland Museum of Art and The Farnsworth Art Museum, and is also represented in corporate and private collections throughout the United States and Europe.

Herbert Parsons, another New York City native, is an artist, writer, teacher and owner of Calderwood Hall Gallery on North Haven, who works in oils, pastels and charcoals. He has a B.A. in art history from Harvard, a B.F.A. in painting from Yale, and has participated in many other classes at schools across the country. He has also taught extensively on both coasts, and has held one-person shows in Maine, Washington, Oregon, Massachusetts and California, along with many group exhibitions. 

"After more than 60 years of painting and drawing," he says, "I don't necessarily know where a given image will lead me when I begin. I react to what appears in the initial stages, though it may not be what I intended. My work leans towards subdued tones, grays, overcast skies, fog, shadows-hopefully to suggest some of the essence of my Maine islands of North Haven and Vinalhaven. When the work goes well I'm sometimes given unexpected, surprising results, and learn something new about myself." 

Horizons: Views of Penobscot Bay runs through June 25. Archipelago hours are Tuesday through Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.