The Waldo Theatre Gallery presents graphite drawings and giclée prints by Susan A. Cooney. This show, “Texture and Light,” will be open to the public during the month of July. An artist reception will be held on July 17, from 5 to 7 p.m., to be followed by a screening of Ian Cheney's film The Long Coast, which features  Cooney's art.

Cooney was raised in Kingston, New York, a town situated on the Hudson River. Shortly after graduating from the State University of New York at New Paltz in 1991, she moved to Maine to work on the water. After spending five seasons sailing Penobscot Bay, working on various windjammer schooners out of Camden harbor, she boarded other tall ships sailing the coasts of Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean, as well as the U.S. eastern seaboard. But she always returned to the coast of Maine. In 2002, Cooney and her husband moved on to their 25-foot wooden sailboat, Kainui, and lived there for seven years. She currently lives in a small house they built in Belfast.

Cooney has focused on drawing coastal Maine for the past 25 years using the medium of graphite (pencil) to explore the texture of water, tree, rock, and sky. She concentrates on how those textures relate to each other and the beautiful compositions they create, finding that working in black and white helps to highlight the interplay of those textures by removing the distraction of color.

Her studio is located on Main Street in Belfast where prints of all drawings, made by Digital Imageworks of Waterville, are available.  These signed, limited edition giclée prints are equal in size to the original drawings.

Cooney continues to explore the coast of Maine, volunteering with Maine Island Trail Association, Maine Coast Heritage Trust, and Island Heritage Trust. She feels fortunate to be able to help steward some of the very islands from which she draws inspiration. 

For more information about her work, visit: https://susancooney.me/

The Waldo Theatre Gallery is open before events, during Waldoboro Art Walk, and by appointment. To make an appointment, please send an email to: info@thewaldotheatre.org. A portion of each sale benefits the Waldo Theater programming.