Eline Barclay

On the downeast coast of Maine, in Eline Barclay’s studio overlooking the pleasant river marsh, she has found the perfect synthesis of solitude and inspiration.  Wetlands, tidal and freshwater, have always comprised a major part of her iconography.  Barclay’s paintings are moody and atmospheric and grounded in the tradition of tonalism.  They reflect a deep absorption in nature.  The drama of ever-changing Maine weather: the tides, the cool violet gray light at the horizon, the late afternoon fog rolling in from the east in the summer.  The marsh in winter: frozen and still, mysterious and foreboding at twilight.  Barclay’s response to this landscape is inner peacefulness and yet also a mood of elegy reflecting a deep concern for a threatened ecosystem.