“I’m intrigued with the idea that we live in a borrowed environment—we live in cities that were built by others, often we live in houses that someone else built, we use furniture that dates from earlier eras, we have favorite recipes that come from others, etc. But, they are our cities, homes and recipes etc., now,” Kittery artist Gail Sauter wrote in an email. “We are part of the flow and passing of time. I try to convey the past that is living in our present and is in our care for the future.”

Sauter’s words reveal the motivation behind much of her pastel work. On Friday, Nov. 9, the walls of the Haley Art Gallery in Kittery, Maine, will be adorned with Sauter’s work in an exhibit called “Passages—of Time and Places.” The exhibit will open with an artist reception from 3 to 6 p.m. on Nov. 9 and will remain on display until Dec. 6.

“I’m very excited to have an entire gallery filled with Gail’s work. We have shown her work in group exhibits, but never in a solo show,” said Jackie Abramian, owner of Haley Art Gallery. According to Abramian, Sauter often travels to France and Italy for five-week painting stints. The upcoming exhibit includes 20 to 30 paintings of scenes captured abroad and in Kittery.

“Her theme has always been to capture a moment in life and to preserve it so that the audience is drawn in. Her painting really captures something, almost like a museum piece. She is one of the precious gems living in Kittery,” Abramian said.
Sauter holds a BFA in painting from the University of Oklahoma. She has worked professionally in oils and pastels since the early 1970s and has been awarded the honorary distinction of Master Pastelist from the Pastel Society of America. She’s listed in the latest edition of “Who’s Who in American Art,” and her work has been published in two books. Sauter has shown her paintings, which she describes as “gestural rather than factual in my interpretation,” across the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Italy, France and Russia.

Haley Art Gallery shows work from Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Montreal, Prague, Iraq, Armenia and elsewhere. “Seacoast and beyond is what we call it,” said Abramian, who opened the gallery in January 2005. With exhibits honoring the victims of 9/11, the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust, and a gift shop that sells fair trade crafts, the gallery has “a very focused and very large social justice theme,” Abramian said. “It really goes with what we do. Arts are the pulse and conscience of our civilization. Truth is always found in the arts.”

Governors Arts Awards announced

On Thursday, Oct. 25, a reception hosted by the N.H. Council on the Arts was held at the State House in Concord to announce winners of the 2007 Governors Arts Awards. Gov. John Lynch and First Lady Susan Lynch were there to announce the winners, which include Kittery resident Drika Overton. 

The Governors Arts Awards are presented every two years to recognize the achievements of residents who have contributed to the advancement of art in New Hampshire. The first award was handed out in 1980, but budget cuts suspended the program until 1989. This year, the N.H. Council on the Arts received 14 nominations of artists and professionals working in the categories of arts education, arts patronage, distinguished leadership, folk heritage and an individual artist’s lifetime of work. According to Yvonne Stahr, programs information officer for the awards program, anyone can nominate an artist or professional by filling out a nomination form. “It helps if there are letters of support attached to their application,” Stahr said.

The Lotte Jacobi Living Treasure award went to composer Marilyn J. Ziffrin, of Bradford. The New Hampshire Folk Heritage award went to Cape Breton fiddler Harvey Tolman, of Nelson. The Individual Arts Patron award went to the Bloomfield family, of Bow. An award for achievement in Arts Education went to Phoebe Neiswenter of Pembroke. The Arts Leadership Award went to Overton, a choreographer and percussive dancer from Kittery, Maine.

According to Stahr, Overton received the award despite being a Maine resident because, “She is most active in New Hampshire and Portsmouth. She puts on a dance festival and teaches in New Hampshire. She has also been a resident of New Hampshire.”

Each recipient of the 2007 Governors Arts Awards will receive a piece of commissioned art done by one of several New Hampshire artists involved with the State Council on the Arts. The award designs will be interpretations of the eagle atop the N.H. State House dome. Seacoast potter Kit Cornell, of Exeter, will create the Distinguished Arts Leadership Award, and tapestry weaver Suzanne Pretty, of Farmington, will create the Individual Arts Patron Award.

Gov. Lynch and his wife, honorary chairs of the 2007 award ceremony, will present the awards at a public celebration on April 24, 2008, at Colonial Theatre in Keene.