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Unity College Art Gallery to Exhibit Photographs and Art from Mathias Fine Art

Unity, Maine -- November, 2004 – On November 17 from 4:00 to 6:00 PM , the Leonard R. Craig Art Gallery at Unity College will host a special artists’ reception to introduce photographs and art in different mediums.  The artists’ reception will commence a gallery showing of selections from Mathias Fine Art, 10 Mathias Drive , Barter’s Island , Trevett , Maine .  Five artists who are affiliated with Mathias Fine Art will be displaying their work.

     The selections from Mathias Fine Art will be shown at the Leonard R. Craig Art Gallery at Unity College from the opening on November 17 through December 17, 2004 , Monday through Friday.  The gallery will be closed during the Thanksgiving holiday.

     The Unity College Art Gallery is located in the South Coop building on the Unity College campus, 90 Quaker Hill Road , Unity , Maine .  

     The five artists displaying their work are Brenda Bettinson (drawing); Mike Culver (painting); Paul Feyling (photography); Patt Franklin (painting); Brigitte Keller (painting).

     Brenda Bettinson studied in London , Paris , and Rome , and held her first one-person show at the age of 19 at the Twenty Book Street Gallery in London ’s West End ; at age 36 – by then a New York resident – she was the recipient of the Gold Medal of the New York Arts Club’s International Exhibition.

     The Ogunquit Museum of American Art and Bates College Museum of Art are among the institutions that own Bettinson’s work, which is included in private and public collections in North America , Europe and Israel .

     Brigitte Keller was born in Germany and came to the United States after having studied art at Paderborn University and the School of Fine Arts in Berlin .  She continued her studies in New York at NYU with Victor Candell, and at the Art Students League and later in Boston at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts .

     She has exhibited extensively in group shows in New York , New England , Japan , Italy and Germany . 

     Mike Culver is a painter as well as a highly respected museum curator.  He currently holds the position of Director and Curator at the Ogunquit Museum of American Art.  He is originally from Kentucky , where he studied art and later earned his Ph.D. in art history at the University of Kentucky .  He was awarded a Fulbright fellowship to pursue advanced painting projects in Europe .

     Culver is well-known and has earned praise from critics for his dynamic work.  The painter has a preoccupation with color as it is transformed by natural lighting conditions in open landscape.  His primary medium is acrylics, which he applies to different surfaces, including canvas, paper and panels.

     Culver’s work is included in private and corporate collections in Maine and elsewhere.  He is listed in Who’s Who in American Art and other professional directories.

     Patt Franklin is a professor of art at the University of Southern Maine , Gorham , Maine , a position she has held for thirty years.  A painter of great accomplishment, Franklin has long drawn her inspiration from the natural environment, and as a result she has produced series of works based on the intricacies of pattern in tide pools, wooded landscapes, and the mysteries of caves among others.

     She graduated with a BFA from Pratt Institute in New York , New York and gained her MFA at Tulane University .  She has an extensive exhibition record which spans a quarter of a century.  She has been awarded several research grants that allowed her to pursue her development as a painter.

     Franklin’s work is included in many private and public collections, among them Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Boston Library, Bowdoin College Museum, New England Medical Center, Tufts University, and the corporate collection of Baker Newman and Noyes in Portland.

     Since 1992, she has been distinguished by inclusion in Who’s Who in American Art.  Her work has been included in exhibitions for several years at Mathias Fine Art.

     Paul Feyling made his debut as a fine art photographer at Mathias Fine Art in the exhibition Skies in 2004.  Most of Feyling’s previous work has been in professional filmmaking.  A documentary film producer, director and photographer, Feyling has received critical acclaim in the United States and abroad.  His A Naturalist in the Rain Forest won numerous awards including the Gold Plaque for Best Documentary in Science and Nature at the 1996 Chicago International Film Festival. 

     He has made films for various corporations, among them Paramount Communications, PBS and the BBC Natural History Unit.  The great beauty and elegant juxtaposition of subjects which characterize Feyling’s films are present and eloquent in his superb series of skies shot at night and during daylight hours in the town of Boothbay , Maine .

     Feyling has spent whole summer nights in Maine observing and capturing on film the dazzling splendor of the stars.

     Works presented in the gallery display are as follows:

Brenda Bettinson:  Comfrey, Found Object, Huckleberries, Pine Cone, Resurgo, The Pattern of the Vine, The Rose Garden, and Triptych.

Mike Culver: Field & Stream, Afterglow; Purple Cloud; Red Sky at Morning; Red Sky at Night; Sea Wall, Rain; Spring Woods, Birches; Winter Sky; and Yellow Sky.

Paul Feyling: Mars in Maine (Over Tree Tops); Mars Over South Beach (ME) at Full Moon; Point Reyes Pines and Nebulae (CA); Ridge Top / Point Reyes; Stars Over Westport Island / Bath Sky Glow; The Stars Across the Cove, Barter’s island; and Wiscasset Sky Glow with Big Dipper.

Patt Franklin: Untitled (Rainforest, Yellow); P.R. Rainforest, 1; P.R. Rainforest, 2; P.R. Rainforest, 4; P.R. Rainforest, 5; P.R. Rainforest, 6; P.R. Rainforest; and P.R. Rainforest, Canopy.

Brigitte Keller: Horizon 3; Horizon 4; Horizon 5; Spiral; Sunrise ; Sunflower; To the Light; and Dreamscape.

     For more information on the November 17 opening and display through December 17, contact Unity College Associate Professor, Fine Art, Robin Lowe at (207) 948-3131, Ext. 203.

     Unity College is a small, independent institution that specializes in baccalaureate programs in environmental sciences, natural resource management, and wilderness-based outdoor recreation. Unity College educates its students for professions that are dedicated to sustaining the earth’s natural resources and for citizenship in a world of global human and environmental concerns.