The Buzz about Bees July Paintings at Jean Kigel Back Cove Gallery

Pollination, wc, Jean Kigel

Jean Kigel Gallery located  at 1396 Back Cove Road in Waldoboro is hosting “The Buzz about Bees” from  June 18  until  June 30.   This show focuses on close-ups of Asian brush and watercolor florals, as well as  on their many pollinators.  Take a look at Kigel’s Asian brush peonies, lotus and lilies, and you’ll see their pollen-laden stamen.   Take a closer look, and you’ll find some of their pollinators.

The current buzz about bees is alarming, but Kigel’s paintings remind us that bees are far from the only pollinators.  Kigel states, “Bees are a large part of the story , but  there are also other insects, birds, bats, and wind that facilitate pollination.   For this reason I love to include flies, beetles, moths, and birds in my floral paintings.  Sometimes I even include wind as a pollinator.”

When Kigel creates Asian brush and  sumi-e paintings, she  first spends meditative time  by  her grinding sticks of ink with water on her ink stone.   When the ink  becomes slippery and dark, she pour s it off into porcelain saucers and dilutes it into varying tones from dark to light.  This ink, combined with watercolrs produces her brush paintings. 

A member of the Sumi-e Society of America, and the Union of Maine Visual Artists, Kigel has exhibited in the Mid-coast,  Massachusetts,  and Vermont.   This show can be seen in person at her new gallery and on line at www.jeankigel.com.  The gallery is open daily by chance or by appointment.  For FMI call 832-5152.