The Museum’s 2025 Winter Session ends Saturday, May 3 at 4pm and with it, two exhibits close – Dan Miller: Going with the Grain, a collection of woodblock prints featuring birds and landscapes by the 96-year-old artist who summers in Corea; and Alley’s Avian Art, a collection of all nine of Islesford painter Rick Alley’s winning depictions of seabirds in their natural habitat which won the prestigious Maine Duck Stamp Contest (more than any other painter in the award’s history.)

The Gilley is open Tuesday night from 6 to 8pm for the April People-Nature-Art reception and presentation by Peggy Clark Lumpkins, and on Friday and Saturday from 10am to 4pm. The we will be closed until Wednesday, May 28 when we reopen with hours Tuesday through Saturday from 10am to 4pm.

Come see this art before it is gone from the Gilley; then plan to come back for the next special exhibit, “Birds in Art,” a traveling show from the vaunted exhibit at the Lee Yawkey Woodson Museum.

Many artists travel widely in search of new subjects, while others spend their entire artistic lives much closer to home. Andrew Wyeth did all of his work in two small areas of Maine and Pennsylvania, and Claude Monet spent the last four decades of his life painting the gardens right out his back door.

Nature artist Barry Van Dusen has done his share of traveling, but he, too, continues to find abundant inspiration nearby – many of his paintings feature subjects observed out the windows of his studio in central Massachusetts.  In this one-hour illustrated talk, Barry takes you along in his explorations of nature “Out the Studio Windows.”

Barry is a renowned and award-winning wildlife artist whose work is regularly exhibited in New England, and his work has gained a wider audience through his participation in prestigious annual national exhibitions such as Birds in Art (Wausau, Wisconsin) and Art of the Animal Kingdom (Bennington, Vermont).  In Europe, too, his art has found a receptive audience.  He regularly exhibits with the Society of Wildlife Artists (London) and his work has been exhibited in France, Holland, Ireland and Scotland.

This is an online-only presentation and is offered free of charge, but reservations are required to get the Zoom link. This program will not be recorded and there will be no recording available afterward.

A storied ceramicist based in England, Kate Malone is known for making public art and studio pottery, and for her innovative glaze research. She has developed an unmistakable and highly regarded style.

Observations of nature, its fruits and vegetables and nature in the abstract are the overriding influences in Kate’s work. In addition to her exploration of nature, Kate has spent her career pioneering glazing techniques via research and experimentation in the chemistry of glazing. The sophistication of her glazes has led to some interesting collaborations with prominent architects and designers, working on inspiring public art projects in hospitals, schools, parks and libraries.

Join us online to hear more from this artist about her work, it’s nature inspirations, and what’s nex as part of this online-only People-Nature-Art event. People-Nature-Art is a series of free monthly programs that feature an artist whose work is inspired by nature. It is partially sponsored by our friends at Bar Harbor Bank & Trust..

Birds in Art is a prestigious juried international exhibit that debuts every September at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Museum and features more than 100 works of the 1,000+ submitted annually, all themed around the wonders of the avian world. When it closes at the Woodson, sixty works of art are chosen for a traveling show and it is that show — featuring new paintings, sculptures, and works on paper created by contemporary artists — that is coming to the Gilley in 2025. The exhibit will be featured from when we reopen on May 28, through Aug. 9.

This Birds in Art is an especially exciting collection of work. Using a range of mediums including watercolor, acrylic, oil, wood, and bronze, the artists depict the beauty, spirit, and habitat of birds through approaches that are both classic and innovative.