Local Color Gallery introduces guest and new full-time artists on 4th Friday

BELFAST — Local Color Gallery will host a Fourth Friday Art Walk reception on Friday, May 24, from 4 to 7 p.m., featuring short artist talks at 5 p.m. by Van Bankston, the new guest artist, and three new full-time artists: Susan Smith, Shelley Breton, and Ruth Heffron. Bankston’s bold colors and non-representational geometric pieces will be featured at the gallery for three months beginning Tuesday, May 21.

“This series of paintings furthers my spiritual evolution away from materialism and the status quo,” said Bankston, in a Local Color news release. “My art is an invitation to enter a contemplative space where the mind may experience the satisfaction of the present moment through the abstract essences of color, balance, line, form, and texture. My art is about the relationship between myself and the painting, the painting and the viewer, and the viewer with him or herself.”

A Belfast artist, Bankston was born and grew up in the Mississippi Delta. He has degrees in landscape architecture, education, and theology. He has also studied at the New York School of Interior Design and the Fashion Institute of Technology. After years in New York City as an interior designer, he returned to Mississippi and worked full time as an artist, which ultimately led to a call to the priesthood. He has served as an Episcopal priest since 2012.

Local Color Gallery, 135 High Street, Belfast, is open from 11 to 5 Tuesday through Saturday and 11 to 4 on Sundays. For more information, go to www.localcolorgallerymaine.org.