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Maine Audubon Art Auction is Friday, Sept. 29, from 6-9 p.m. at the Gilsland Farm Audubon Center in Falmouth. A silent auction will be held from 6-7:30 p.m. with guest hosts Amy Sinclair and Kim Block of WGME-TV. The live auction begins at 7:30, led by Maine auctioneer Kaja Veilleux of Thomaston Place Auction Galleries.

Tickets are $30 each or two for $50 and include hors d’oeuvres and drinks. For reservations and information, call 781-2330, ext. 231.

Artwork can be previewed now at www.maineaudubon.org or in person at Gilsland Farm Audubon Center starting Friday, Sept. 22.

Three Scarborough artists have forged different paths to artistic expression. Christine Beneman paints scenes from the Scarborough marsh, Bill Cox takes sand from local beaches to work into his pottery and Nantz Comyns takes pieces of the forest to sculpt animals that range from deer to life-size moose.

What they have in common is a dedication to help preserve the natural world that is their muse. Each will offer a piece into the Maine Audubon’s ninth annual auction in an effort to raise money for organization.

The auction is Friday, Sept. 29, from 6 p.m.- 9 p.m. at the Gilsland Farm Audubon Center in Falmouth.

The auction, which began in 1998, is a major fundraiser for Maine Audubon.

“It all goes towards our mission, which is to protect Maine wildlife and habitat,” said Susy Kist, special events coordinator. “It really is a great opportunity to see the work of 115 Maine artists,” she added. “You can’t walk into many galleries and see that.”

For the Scarborough artists joining the auction, Audubon’s emphasis on conservation through education is a major draw.

This will be Beneman’s third year participating in the fundraiser. Though a painting of the marsh will represent her work in the auction, Beneman is also a printmaker and member of Portland’s Peregrine Press. Before she became a painter and printmaker she worked in ceramics, but after her children were born she moved into painting.

“Painting was just a little easier to tuck away,” said Beneman.

Her printmaking is abstract, she said, but her painting is often inspired by Scarborough’s marsh. For Beneman, helping to preserve areas of Maine such as the marsh is important, both personally and environmentally.

“I just love the marsh scenery and how it’s always changing with the tides,” said Beneman, who lives close to the Spurwink River. In order to continue enjoying and painting the marsh near her home, Beneman supports groups such as Audubon, Friends of the Scarborough Marsh and the Land Conservation Trust.

“Certainly living so close to the marsh, it makes me aware of how important the water shed is,” she said. “Especially its importance as a storm buffer, which we saw in New Orleans. So many marshes down there were filled in and destroyed.”

Also, said Beneman, preserving the marshes means preserving the integrity of the coast that is often featured in her landscape paintings.

The ocean and the coast also serve as tools and inspiration for Cox, a Higgins Beach summer resident. His pottery echoes the blues, greens and earth tones of the beaches in Maine. For much of his pottery he uses sand from Higgins and other beaches and local clay.

As a junior and chemistry major at Tufts University in the 1950s, said Cox, he was “tapped out” with science and math. The solution, he found, was to take art classes at night, ranging from silversmithing to pottery. After a career in the sciences, he again felt the need for something different.

“Twenty-five years ago, I needed to have something to add to my job that was creative,” said Cox, who lives in Pennsylvania the rest of the year. Now he spends about 25 hours a week taking in the ocean scenery and turning it into stoneware.

“Audubon does great work,” said Cox, who has become a regular at the auction. For the last five years or so, said Cox, he has gladly included his art. This year, he is donating a large bowl. Like Beneman, Cox also donates art and time to the Friends of Scarborough Marsh to help make sure the local environment is protected.

Comyns, too, takes part of the environment around her and turns it into art, though she uses quite a bit more. Comyns makes life-size sculptures of wildlife, including moose, completely out of birch twigs.

Life-size sculptures are just one side of her animal creations. For the auction, she’s donated one of her self-described “funky chickens” made of recycled materials. Her favorite cast-off is the crate packing florists use to protect fragile goods. Instead of tossing old magazines, she shreds them and makes them into herds of sheep.

In college at the University of Pennsylvania, said Comyns, she learned to use traditional materials while earning her fine arts degree. After college came her travels through the South Pacific that taught her something different.

“I really learned to use what I have,” said Comyns. If that happens to be grasses, florist cast-offs, magazines or birch twigs, then that’s what she molds into art.

Having her work in the auction is a way for Comyns not only to give back, but to help ensure the wildlife she loves to sculpt is protected for years to come.

“The Audubon is my favorite,” said Comyns. “It’s always been close to my heart. I appreciate the environmental work they do. They create these habitats that people can walk through, especially in our chaotic world.”

“Boothbay Inlet,” pastel on paper, is Christine Beneman’s contribution to the Maine Audubon art auction, Sept. 29.Bill Cox’s pottery, which he is shown here displaying at the Higgins Beach Art Show last month, echoes the colors of the coast. He is donating at large pasta bowl to the Audubon fundraising auction.Nantz Comyns has one of her “funky chicken” sculptures in the Audubon auction this year. The chickens are made from recycled materials.