CAMDEN—This time of year we often need to turn to older photographs or paintings of what spring looked like to remind ourselves. Camden watercolorist Marcia Anderson is Camden Public Library’s “Artist of the month” and her light, airy landscapes are a nice escape from the reality of March in the Midcoast.

Some 33 watercolors of hers, painted over the span of 20 years, hang in the Camden Public Library gallery.  Marcia and family spent summers on Swan’s Island in the ‘70s and ‘80s, where she owned a studio and gallery at one point. It was a spot that inspired a number of her paintings. Her most popular print, “The Quaking Bog” shows the flush of spring growth with eye-pleasing pale greens and pinks. “Those were pitcher plants a friend dug up, which is a no-no,” she said, “but after he did, I had to paint them. They seem to be everybody’s favorite.”

Anderson received a Fine Arts degree from the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston. After, that she received a fellowship from the American/Scandanavian Foundation in NYC to study design with the Scandavian Seminars in Stockholm. Everywhere she has lived, she has found something compelling enough to paint, often right on the spot, en plein air.

“I’ve always drawn since I was a child,” she said. “Watercolor is a very comfortable medium; I’ve been working with it for so long.”

Her travels took her to other islands – Monhegan, Isle Au Haut, have inspired other paintings in the exhibit.

Anderson has exhibited on a small-scale, to nearly a half dozen galleries over the years. She’s in semi-retirement now, and doesn’t have the need to be as prolific as she once did.

“But, if I see something out on a walk, and I just feel it has to be painted, I’ll get out my watercolors,” she said.

Her prints are available at the library or at marciabanderson@gmail.com

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com