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Biddeford, Maine

Landscape paintings by Adrienne Kernan LaVallee now on display at Biddeford Campus Center

Landscape painting of water and sand dunes, entitled "The Breach," by Adrienne LaVallee

On display at the SWAGƵ Biddeford Campus Center are paintings by New England-based artist Adrienne Kernan LaVallee. The display, titled “Seasons,” will be viewable now through Nov. 1.

LaVallee is a native New Englander whose family began vacationing in Maine in the early 1960s. Now a resident of Biddeford Pool, LaVallee, paints from her backyard studio almost exclusively in oils.

“I loved [oil paint] at age three when I got into my father’s paints and tried mixing colors on the floor. If I close my eyes, I still hear my mother’s scream as she discovered me and my handiwork,” she remarked. “That introduction stayed with me, and today I continue to love the way I can push oil paint around but now on canvas.”

The paintings shown in “Seasons” — 11 in total — are selected from a series of highly representational landscape paintings LaVallee began in 1995. Recently, however, LaVallee has shifted to painting expressive abstracted views of the coast of Maine.

LaVallee holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth.

She stated that her influences have been artists of dynamic work, including those of the Italian Futurism and Abstract Expressionist movements. Among her artist heroes are David Alfaro Siquerios, Frieda Kahlo, Yves Klein, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, Jane Freilicher, and Fairfield Porter. Contemporary influences include Pat Steir, Lois Dodd, Anselm Kiefer, and Julie Mehretu.

LaVallee also cites her father, also an artist, as an inspiration.

“Seasons” will be on display at the Campus Center through Nov. 1. The Campus Center is located at 11 Hills Beach Road, Biddeford, Maine. Hours for the academic year are Monday through Friday, 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Masks are optional indoors for visitors to SWAGƵ’s campuses.

Pictured above: "The Breach," by Adrienne Kernan LaVallee.

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