AUGUSTA — Art is often called an expression of life, and three artists with the group Andover Village Painters brought their own expressions of life to the Legislature through installations of their works.

Denise Hurd, Pamela Berry, and Donna Morse, all of Andover, recently visited the Maine State House to install Berry’s latest work, “My Favorite Bird.” Her painting joined others from her group already on exhibit in the Senate Republican Office.

For Berry, a former art teacher who taught for 23 years at Oxford Hills Middle School, her latest work follows another of hers already exhibited at the State House, “Deer Eating Crabapples.” She began the painting in 2019 and finished it the following spring.

“I started with a large piece of watercolor paper and with a bird over the winter. In the spring, I completed the background,” Berry said, adding Andover’s proximity to Maine’s western mountains served as her inspiration. “We see birds all the time. Nature is such a wonderful thing and we need to nurture it.”

Hurd, another member of the six-person group whose painting “A Collection of Watering Cans” is also exhibited in the Senate office, has been painting for about 16 years. Once she finished homeschooling her children, she found she had time to devote to a hobby.

“I started with acrylics because of the control you have,” she said. “There’s not a lot of control with watercolor.”

Since she began painting in 2007, Hurd has completed over 100 pieces including the one at the State House, which she finished in about 13 hours in July 2022. However, not all are as fast – one commissioned piece took her 10 months to complete due to its level of detail.

“I have to have some kind of drawing done to make sure all my angles are correct,” she said of her process. “Once I’m satisfied with the look of the design, I’ll paint it.”

According to Morse, her inspiration to paint came from her granddaughter whom she painted walking along the former fairy garden trail at Worthley Pond nearly a decade ago. Since then, she’s completed about 22 works and has done commercial work including signs. Still, painting for her has more to do with its experience.

“It’s good therapy. When I’m concentrating on painting, I’m not concentrating on anything else,” she said. “I recently started watercolor because I wanted to try another medium.”

For Assistant Senate Republican Leader Lisa Keim, R-Oxford, the art from several artist groups on display in her office is an inspiration to the people who work inside the State House.

“I’m grateful to have art from these talented women brightening the spaces where I work to represent them,” Keim said. “Their beautiful art is enjoyed by all.”

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