Ceramic Workshops: Summer Series

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Down East Gallery is excited to partner with artist Livy Richmond to offer a summer Ceramic Workshop series!

Get your hands muddy and your creativity flowing this summer at Pottery Night, hosted at Down East Gallery in Edgecomb, Maine. We’re kicking off a 5-part summer hand-building class series on June 27. Each workshop is independent - take one or take them all to learn unique techniques to ceramic hand-work.

In the first workshop of the series, you’ll learn the basics of hand-building while crafting your very own one-of-a-kind mug - perfect for your morning cup of Color Field coffee.

Wine and light snacks available.

Brad Betts Exhibition: Blue Skies & Shimmering Seas

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On View June 20 – July 20, 2025

Blue Skies, Shimmering Seas

Presenting Blue Skies, Shimmering Seas, a luminous five-year journey through Santa Barbara as seen through the eyes of celebrated marine artist Brad Betts. A Signature Member of the American Society of Marine Artists, Betts brings his East Coast mastery to the California coastline with a series of plein air paintings that capture the region’s radiant light, lush gardens, and iconic architecture.

Blue Skies, Shimmering Seas returns on Friday, June 20 with a special offering of the most recent en plein air paintings by Brad Betts, inspired by the Preview Weekend’s events.

From golden-hour coastlines to sunlit bougainvillea, Betts’s plein air paintings evoke the rhythm, beauty, and soul of the American Riviera.

On View June 20 – July 20, 2025

New Paintings: Santa Barbara

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Brad is kicking off a solo show in Santa Barbara with 4 new 30”x40” paintings and a 4-day preview weekend full of events!

Preview Weekend Thursday June 5 to Sunday June 8, 2025

Schedule of Events:

  • June 5, 5-8 pm - VIP Meet and Greet; Exhibition Opening Reception

  • June 6, 5-7 pm - Artist Talk & Live Painting Demonstration

  • June 7, 10-12 pm - Painting Santa Barbara, en plein air

  • June 8, 10-12 pm - Painting Santa Barbara, en plein air

Contact Art & Soul Gallery to RSVP and get details for each event!

Color Field Coffee Offers Fine Roasts and Broad Strokes in Maine

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Howard Bryman | September 10, 2024

Inside the Color Field Coffee roastery and coffee shop in Boothbay, Maine. All images courtesy of Color Field Coffee.

A father-son pair of professional abstract painters in coastal Maine recently launched a roasting operation and attached coffee bar called Color Field Coffee.

Located on family-owned land on the lush Boothbay Peninsula, with just a few hundred feet of forest between the shop and Linekin Bay, Color Field Coffee blends its founders’ aesthetic sensibilities with their shared passion for high-quality coffee.

“The style of color field painting, where large swaths of solid color are placed with bold brush strokes, minimizes the message on a canvas so a viewer can interpret the art and emotions,” the younger Color Field co-founder, Sam Betts, told Daily Coffee News. “Coffee, with its body, depth, and varied flavor notes, also lends itself to interpretation in much the same way.”

Beans roasted in-house by Sam’s father, co-founder Brad Betts, are loaded into bags designed by Sam. Both pitch in when it comes to customer service and managing the cozy 320-square-foot shop adjacent to the roastery.  

The shop was formerly Brad’s art studio and gallery before he opened the Down East Gallery in Edgecomb, Maine, prior to launching Color Field.

Guests are welcome to help themselves to espresso and Americanos at a super-automatic machine inside the shop, where bright furniture, loose canvas paintings and and warm tunes from a vinyl record player set the vibe. 

“The small space feels large with cathedral beamed ceilings and light flowing from the atrium-style skylights,” Sam Betts told Daily Coffee News. “The gallery-style coffee house is filled with color.”

Roasted and bagged coffees are on display not far from the 2-kilo-capacity Ambex YM-2 roaster Brad bought from his sister-in-law, Michelle Dubord, who runs an established roasting company in western Maine called Greenwood Bean.

Coffee options include Color Field’s signature roast, Wakened Birds, which consists of Mexican, Guatemalan and Sumatran coffees, all Fair Trade certified and each roasted to a different level. 

“We prioritize sourcing Fair Trade and organic beans and have found a few specific farms that produce incredibly consistent and flavorful beans,” Sam Betts said. “Wakened Birds has been fine-tuned over many years to culminate in what we consider the ‘perfect cup.’ We also offer rotating selections of single-origins, based on availability and personal interest.”

Brad Betts moved to the Boothbay area with a group of fellow artists decades ago, and took up roasting as a hobby about 10 years ago after he and his wife raised a family. 

While cognizant of his father’s love of coffee, Sam Betts was first bitten by the coffee bug while living in Santa Barbara, California. He then moved to the known coffee hotbed of Brooklyn, New York, where the father and son eventually hatched the business concept while planning a collaborative art show called The Color Field Series.

“While brainstorming over a particularly great cup of coffee, we were drawn to the question: ‘how can we design a coffee brand that can communicate the flavor notes without having to express it directly?'” Sam Betts told DCN.

When Sam returned to Maine, he helped Brad launch the company that is now approaching its first anniversary. An art exhibition called Toast to the Roast starts Sept. 20 at the shop to celebrate the milestone, with a majority of the works on display being in the Color Field style of abstract expressionism. In addition to art for sale, the event will include creative coffee cocktails and live music.

“Art is as foundational to the business, as is coffee,” the Bettses jointly said. “Our goals for the future are simple: keep the light-filled space an inspiring experience to share our passions for art and coffee.”

Color Field Coffee Co. is located at 30 Van Horn Road, East Boothbay.

Color Field Coffee Co.

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Down East Gallery artists Brad Betts and Sam Betts launched Color Field Coffee Co. in the fall of 2023. Located in East Boothbay (in the original Down East Gallery space at 30 Van Horne Road), the coffee company specializes in micro-roasting high-quality organic beans offered in unique blends. Stop by for a cup of Americano, a bag of fresh-roasted beans, or to enjoy the creative space, complete with original color field paintings by Sam Betts.

New Maritime Paintings

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In this winter's studio paintings, Brad’s focus is on capturing the energy of the scene, whether it be shimmering light or moving water, rather than on the technical details that are common in maritime realism.

Painting fishing schooners and sailing vessels can require pain-staking attention to the details. In Brad's latest maritime paintings, the natural brushstrokes took precedence to the intense rigidity of structure. In addition to capturing movement, the artist considered the overall tone of each setting, limiting color choices to simplify the mood and lay bare the emotion of the scene.
 

Art Auction: Boothbay Region Land Trust

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Brad’s painting “Daylilies at Oak Point Farm” recently sold at Boothbay Region Land Trust’s Art for Acres auction. 100% of the proceeds benefitted the BRLT, which provides over 30 trails of year-round public access, free of charge, for residents and visitors to the Boothbay Region.

Paint Night 2023

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Down East Gallery was pleased to host our first ever Paint Night! The event was put on by Knickerbocker Group as a social event for their employee-owners. Artist Ted Nelson led the evening paint, providing inspiration images and a live paint demonstration. It was an inspiring and fun-filled evening!

Mosteiros, Sao Miguel, Azores

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These works of art were created en plein air, from a grassy bluff overlooking Atlantic breakers crashing on the black lava rocks of the Azorean shoreline of Mosteiros.

Mosteiros, acrylics on loose canvas, 12”x12”, brad betts, asma

“The churning sea
like a glass
turquoise bottle
tipped with white blooms,
waving and rolling
in an open field
of blue
broken by black ledges,
twisted and sharp diffusers,
round and swirling
where the molten memory remains.

Warming skin,
soft tickle of loose tendrils,
quick touchdown
of a small fly.
The chill of a shadow
cast by the crater’s windward clouds.
Lumps and bumps,
a bed of grass
on a path
worn down by many travelers.

A ceaseless roar,
birdsong,
doors slamming,
tourist chatter.
Languages you understand
when your eyes are closed.
The twinkling
of paint brushes
spun clean,
the turquoise of the sea
left behind,
captured in a glass bottle.”
— Danielle Betts

Santa Barbara

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Plein air paintings by Brad Betts, ASMA, Santa Barbara, CA

First Year

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Walking around Ocean Point, a young, first year gull demanded our attention from a shoreline rock where he was loudly crying or complaining. I don’t know if he was starving or if he lost his food but I saw a bright orange peach lying on the beach below him, just out of his view. Either way, I threw him the peach and the crying instantly stopped. It was a striking scene that stood in my memory until I painted it - the frazzled, hungry bird’s feathers blended with the cloudy and foggy day, and the only color was the brilliance of the fresh peach.

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Boothbay Sea and Science Center, 2021

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On August 17, 2021, Brad hosted a class for the young sailors from the 2021 Boothbay Sea and Science Center program. The BSSC class toured the gallery, learned about Brad’s inspiration and approach to maritime art, and watched a live painting demonstration while they created their own art with colored pencils.

Brad’s painting “Sea and Science”, 11x14 oil painted live for the 2021 class from the Boothbay Sea and Science Center. The painting is based on a photograph by Bob Crink, which he took in East Boothbay of two young sailors enrolled in the BSSC program.

Brad’s painting “Sea and Science”, 11x14 oil painted live for the 2021 class from the Boothbay Sea and Science Center. The painting is based on a photograph by Bob Crink, which he took in East Boothbay of two young sailors enrolled in the BSSC program.

Artist Spotlight: Powerful Women Tapestries by Priscilla May Alden

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Down East Gallery is excited to share a new tapestry series from Priscilla May Alden: Powerful Women. 

Powerful Women_web.jpg
 

Artist Statement

This group of tapestries is about powerful women and where we come from. We are connected to the spirit and strength of our ancestors, including Medicine Women. We are connected to the rhythm of Nature. We are nourished by Mother Earth. We aspire to being strong independent leaders …..voices for change and equal justice.  Ceremonial Dress symbolizes the dancers in ceremonies I saw at different Pueblos. The dancers were so focused and connected to the rhythms of beating drums.  Mother Earth and Earth Daughter I and II are about the connection to and dependence we have on the earth and our responsibility to preserve, protect  and nourish it. Spirit Woman and Spirit Women are about the power we have within us to be voices of healing, creativity, and innovation. ~ Priscilla May Alden

The Powerful Women tapestry series is being exhibited in the barn at Down East Gallery, May to October 2021.

 

West Coast

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Brad completed over 45 plein air and studio paintings in the winter of 2020/21 from the beautiful seaside city of Santa Barbara, California. Please contact the gallery if you are interested in purchasing or seeing more of this west coast series.

This collection was featured by writer Lisa Kristoff in the Boothbay Register and Wiscasset Newspaper… read the story.

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Boothbay Region: Insider Tips

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If you’re planning a trip to Maine this summer, check out Danielle’s Insider Tips published in the March 2021 issue of Maine Magazine!

Insider Tips for Visiting the Boothbay Peninsula

The Boothbay region may be best known for its bustling coastline and Boothbay Harbor’s walkable downtown, but there’s so much more to explore. We caught up with longtime resident Danielle Betts, director at Knickerbocker Group, to find out how she likes to spend her time in the area. Read More…