Bath gallery show continues through end of the month
BATH — Markings Gallery will present a show called A Black and White Affair until Feb. 28. This show will feature black and white works of art from many of artists including the art quilts of Jo Diggs, Susan Mill’s spirit vessels, portrait pillows from Elizabeth Stoyko, enamel jewelry by Suzanne Anderson and woven and felt garments from Marianne Senechal and Janice Jones.

There will be a reception from 2-4 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 17.

For more information, call 443-1499 or visit markingsgallery.com.

Cabot Mill Antiques passes $1 million in annual sales
BRUNSWICK — The Brunswick Maine Antiques Mall announced that it had surpassed the one million dollars in sales per annum.

On Dec. 22, customers Mary and Brion Controvillas purchased of an oval walnut marble-top, Victorian-style side table that put Cabot Mill over the $1 million mark. It first reached $1 million in annual sales in 2016.

“This is a major milestone for our antique mall, which was launched in November of 1996 and has continued a strong and steady growth for over 20 years,” said Deborah Stufflebeam, the store’s manager. “It puts us in a unique position among antique malls. It’s a testament to the quality of the merchandise our antique dealers provide to the public, the hard work and devotion of our friendly and knowledgeable sales team and our innovative and consistent marketing.”

Cabot Mill Antiques recently opened a sister shop in Waterville called Hathaway Mill Antiques, located in the Hathaway Creative Center, the former Hathaway Shirt Factory mill.

The original store opened in 1996 with 20 dealers and a few cases in a walled-off section of the historic Fort Andross building in Brunswick. Cabot Mill Antiques has expanded several times over the years to reach its current 16,000-square-foot size. It has a showroom with more than 160 displayes and over 100 antique dealers have items for sale.

For more information, call 725-2855 or visit cabotiques.com.

Local duo releases debut album
BATH/BRUNSWICK — Melon Shades, a duo including Shawn Russell and Henry Raker, has released its debut album.

Both from Maine, Russell and Baker have been playing music together in a separate band, The Astral Pines, for two years, and they both felt that it was time to see what they could come up with as a duo.

Russell lives and plays around Maine in venues like Blue in Portland. Baker splits his time between New York and Maine, and he has played in venues like The Bitter End and The Bowery Electric and has worked with musicians including Darius Jones and Meaner Pencil.

Baker plays clarinet and saxophone, while Russell plays guitar. The album was recorded in the woods at Russell’s house on an old field microphone last summer.

For more information, email melonshadesband@gmail.com or call 440-3435.

River Arts hosting new show this month
DAMARISCOTTA — River Arts in Damariscotta is hosting its Artist’s Choice show juried by art historian and critic Daniel Kany.

Kany is an art historian, art critic, musician and freelance writer. More than 480 of Kany’s award-winning art criticism columns have appeared in the Maine Sunday Telegram and the Portland Press Herald. Kany has authored dozens of catalogs, publications and magazine articles about art and artists.

He currently serves on the editorial board of the Maine Arts Journal: The UMVA Quarterly, and he has won multiple awards from the Maine Press Association for his art criticism.

Kany studied at Bowdoin College and Johns Hopkins University. An experienced curator, Kany has been a director of the Center on Contemporary Art in Seattle, Friesen Gallery, William Traver Gallery and the Daniel Kany Gallery.

For more information, call 563-1507 or visit riverartsme.org.

Local painter showing work at peninsula hospital
DAMARISCOTTA — Artist Ed McCartan will exhibit his paintings of botanical/spiritual subjects through March 15 at the Miles Memorial Hospital hall gallery. McCartan is a retired teacher of studio art and art history, most recently at the Emma Willard School and Russell Sage College in Troy, N.Y. He currently teaches at Midcoast Senior College in Brunswick and paints in his studio in the old Bath Memorial Hospital with the help of his dog Mickey.

For more information, call 729-9497.

Rising Tide hosting exhibition featuring local students
DAMARISCOTTA — Through March 1, the walls of Rising Tide Co-Op will be adorned with a collection of silk-screened images and ceramics created by local students.

The exhibition, titled Tools We Use on the Farm, will showcase work created by students of the elementary school at Chewonki, inspired by their close connection and hands-on participation on the Chewonki farm, where they spend time each week throughout the school year.

The pieces in this show were created as a part of integrated art units from earlier this school year. The students, ranging from third to eighth grade, explored the sophisticated silkscreen technique during their integrated fiber arts unit that connected to their ecology, economy and farm units. Older students also explored ceramics as part of an integrated arts lesson connecting chemistry and clay concepts.

“The benefits of integrated and meaningful art education really comes from developing important habits of work,” said Coreysha Stone, the school’s visual arts specialist.

Stone incorporates the Eight Studio Habits of Mind framework developed by Project Zero through Harvard University to guide learning and expectations while students are in art class.

“The framework that I use for the ways-of-being during art, supports students to envision, engage, challenge themselves, and reflect on their work and experience,” Stone said. “These are important habits that support learning in all subjects, laying the foundation to be able to create lessons that span months while maintaining student investment and excitement. The type of strong collaborative planning we do here with all the teachers provides students with a rich place-based experience.”

For more information, call 563-5556 or visit risingtide.coop.