Kate Cheney Chappell

Kate Cheney Chappell studied at Chatham College, the Sorbonne in Paris, and Maine College of Art, and received a B.A. degree from the University of Southern Maine. She has also studied at the Haystack School of Crafts, and is a member of Peregrine Press, a co-operative of fine arts printmakers.

Chappell’s art encompasses painting, printmaking and poetry. While in residence at her home on Monhegan Island, she paints directly from nature in watercolors; other works incorporate mixed media, collage, or explore the interplay of word and image.

“Drawing and painting have always been ways I engage with the natural world. I am also a person who likes to explore the boundaries between traditional forms. I like to put poetry and monotype together, collage and watercolor, make artist’s books, experiment with installations. Inspiration has come from visits to stone circles in England and Wales, reading poetry, looking at “Li”, the Chinese study of dynamic forms and correlations in nature (e.g., the similarity of a single brain neuron and the branching habit of a tree). Most of all, Monhegan Island remains my soul place. There I am surrounded by sea, alone with the waves, doing the little acts of a simpler way of life, painting all day on the cliffs, or singing at night in community with others who love and live and work on the island.”

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Education:

  • Colby College, Honorary Degree, 2009
  • Chatham College, Pittsburgh, PA, Honorary Degree 1997, Vaino T. Kola: painting and design
  • Sarah Lawrence College, Junior Year Abroad 1965-66
  • The Sorbonne
  • L’Atelier Goetz: drawing, painting, etching
  • University of Southern Maine, B.A. 1983
  • Haystack School of Crafts:
  • Fiber Arts with Anne Wilson; Book Arts with Sas Colby, 1996;
  • with Michael Alpert and Jan Owen, 1998.
  • Co-Instructor monoprint workshop 2000,
  • Open Door 2008, “Creating in Maine” symposium 2006
  • Quint-Rose: mixed-media
  • Joanne Scott, Monhegan: watercolor, monoprint
  • Maine College of Art: Alice Spencer: monoprint, xerox litho; Deborah Klotz-Paris,
  • sculpture; Joshua Eckles: etching.
  • Vermont Studio Center: Printmaking residency, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2006-2009, 2014

Solo Shows:

  • InterRelated: One Artist’s Response to Silent Spring: Chatham University, Pittsburgh, PA 2012
  • Inner Terrain: New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT 2008
  • Envelope: Round Top Center for the Arts, Damariscotta, ME 2003
  • The Envelope Project: True North Conferences, Scarborough, ME 2004
  • Harvard Divinity School, Cambridge, MA 1996 – 1998
  • Farmington Art Guild, Farmington, CT

Selected Group Shows:

  • Winter Expectations – Invited New England Artists; George Marshall Store Gallery, York, ME 2013
  • Silent Spring – The Enduring Legacy; George Marshall Store Gallery, York, ME 2013
  • Maine Women Pioneers III: Worldview; UNE Art Gallery, Portland, ME 2013
  • Dunia Moja, Zanzibar & Peregrine Press print exchange, Portland Public Library, 2011
  • Collage: Piecing it Together, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME 2010
  • Sea of Light, River Tree Arts, invitational show, Kennebunk, ME 2009
  • Sustainable?, and Artist panel, Chen Art Gallery,
  • Central Connecticut State University, 2009
  • Chatham University, Book Arts Panel, Pittsburg, PA, 2009
  • First Impressions, Peregrine Press group show, Saco Museum, ME 2008
  • Turning Pages, Center for Book Arts at University of Southern Maine, 2009
  • First Traces, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockport, ME 2008
  • On Island: Women Artists of Monhegan, University of New England Art
  • Gallery, Portland ME 2006 (also co-curator of this show)
  • Maine Printmakers (1980-2005): Center for Maine Contemporary Art,
  • Rockport, ME, 2006
  • Peregrine Press Group Show: George Marshall Store Gallery, York, ME. 2005
  • Invitational Painting Show: Reed Gallery, U Maine Presque Isle, and
  • River Tree Arts, Kennebunk, ME 2004
  • The Art of Printmaking: River Tree Arts, Kennebunk, ME. 2006
  • 10 X 10: June Fitzpatrick Gallery, Portland, ME. 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010
  • Monhegan: River Tree Arts, Kennebunk, ME 2003
  • Aucocisco Gallery, Portland, ME 2002, 2003
  • Island Visions/Island Voices: Round Top Center for the Arts, Damariscotta, ME 2001
  • Art of the Print: Lewis Gallery, Portland Public Library, Portland ME 2001
  • Olin Arts Center, Bates College, Lewiston, ME, 2000
  • Greenhut Gallery, Portland, ME, 2000
  • River Tree Arts, Kennebunk, ME, 1999;
  • Splendid Splashes 2000, 2002, 2006, 2009, 2010;
  • 3 Artist’s, 3 Mediums, 1998
  • Maine Coast Artists, Rockport, ME, 1998
  • St. Andrew’s, Marblehead, MA, 1997
  • St. Clement’s Annual Art Show, Somerville, MA, 1997
  • Willis-Clark Gallery, Magnolia, MA, 1996
  • Governor’s & Maine Arts Commission Invitational, Augusta ME 1996

Awards:

  • Kennebunk River Club Annual Juried Show:
  • Best of Show: 1986
  • Honorable Mention: 1995, 1998, 2000, 2005, 2008
  • Patron’s Prize: 2011

Galleries:

  • Lupine Gallery, Monhegan Island, ME
  • Mast Cove Gallery, Kennebunkport, ME

Collections:

  • The Bates College Museum of Art
  • New Britain Museum of American Art
  • Portland Museum of Art
  • University of New England
  • New York Public Library
  • Bowdoin College
  • Colby College
  • Farnsworth Museum

Memberships:

  • Peregrine Press
  • Women Artists of Monhegan Island
  • 10X10