Local Color Gallery welcomes guest artists Abbie Read and Emma Schurink from November 18 through January 18. The Gallery invites everyone to an opening reception on Friday, Nov. 21, from 4 - 7 p.m. Read and Schurink will give artists talks beginning at 5:30 p.m.

At her studio in Appleton, Read works in mixed media collage, painting, printmaking, and book arts. She works mostly in an abstract/non-representational purpose of isolating the pictorial elements of color, texture, shape, and contrast.

“Sometimes I include old books, my own altered books and found objects in my work,” says Read.

Read’s work has been exhibited around Maine and Massachusetts, in Boston and in Michigan, and internationally in Doha, Qatar and Hong Kong as part of the Art in Embassies Program. She shows her work at Triangle Gallery in Rockland, Maine, and is a member of the Union of Maine Visual Artists (UMVA) as well as a founding member of the Midcoast Maine Book Arts Group. See www.abbiereadartist.com and Instagram (#abbiereadartist).

This will be Schurink’s first ever gallery appearance. She creates charcoal drawings of the natural world: alive, mysterious, organic, and meditative. She is drawn to the intensity of charcoal because of its ability to emphasize visual contrast, whether it’s between light and shadow, rough and smooth, or negative and positive space.

"Her new series of drawings capture moments of fleeting light as they dance with the shadows in the forest," said Local Color.

Schurink studied visual art at Kenyon College and resides in Searsmont, Maine. See www.emmaschurinkart.com.

Local Color Gallery is at 135 High St., Belfast. Hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Learn more at localcolorgallerymaine.com.