Arts in the Park

ARTS IN THE PARK is one of most respected fine arts and crafts festivals in Midcoast Maine. The variety of artwork and crafts is outstanding, and continuous live music and the smells of freshly grilled food add to the festival atmosphere. The venue can't be improved upon - set on the water's edge downtown on Belfast's harbor with tugboats, sailboats, and dinghies moored a few feet away. –photo by Jack Sullivan

The 2009

poster.

The background is a painting by our 2009 "Artist of the Year":

Judith Schuppien,
of Pittston, Maine.

“Artist of the Year”
Pittston Painter Judith Schuppien

Milbridge native and Pittston resident Judith Schuppien is Artist of the Year for the 14th annual Arts in the Park. Her luminous painting “Bristol Mills,” depicting a Maine countryside home with an enormous pine tree, will be the poster advertising the 2009 Belfast art festival. Posters will be in stores and community bulletin boards all over central and Mid-Coast Maine.

Schuppien started drawing as a child in Milbridge, earned her college degree in fine art at the University of Chicago, and then did what she calls “a turning,” getting her master’s degree in business administration (MBA), also at the prestigious University of Chicago.

She is now back on an art track, full time, producing oil and pastel paintings of Maine seascapes, landscapes, downtowns, and “fun” subjects. (One of her fun paintings is of a rooster and his lady, titled “Steppin’ Out.”) Her style is characterized by impressionistic strokes and folk art shapes with usually sharp definitions, stark contrasts and deep colors, sometimes heavily accented by bright blue. Experts call her work “contemporary impressionism.”

But what Schuppien’s paintings communicate is her humor and bright personality. She has recently started to reproduce some of her paintings as geclee prints (high-quality reproductions combining scan and photo technology). A member of the Kennebec Valley Artists’ Association, Judith Schuppien exhibits frequently at their gallery the Harlow in Hallowell. She has also had several solo shows in Maine galleries and a number of prizes from other Maine art shows.