March 28, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Machias artist to exhibit prints of downtown

MACHIAS — Local artist Cecile Clifford and business partner Harriet Webb have teamed together to release prints of two of Clifford’s watercolors of downtown Machias, circa 1900.

The limited-edition prints are of Main Street, with the old watering trough, and of Center Street. They are from a series of original “Old-Time Machias” paintings by Clifford and owned by Webb.

Clifford, who works in a studio at her home in East Machias, says that her enthusiasm for watercolor was influenced by the late artist Ed Foster. Under his guidance she began to try the medium for the first time in 1978.

A year ago, she became interested in “the way we were” in the Machias Valley area during the lumbering era. Having a longstanding love of horses, anything that has to do with the “horse and buggy days” interests her.

She uses old postcards to develop her paintings, researching the colors of buildings and inventing characters and animals to round out the scenes.

If there aren’t enough people in the original photograph, which is often the case, she uses antique photos, some from her own family album.

The limited-edition prints of each painting will be shown for the first time during the Woodwind Gallery Open House from noon until 5 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 8.


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