Create your own felted wool wall hanging in this fun “spooky trees” felting class. Join fiber artist and instructor Hillary Dow for an afternoon of creativity and fun on Saturday, Oct. 25, from  1-3pm.

We will use wool sourced from Maine fiber farms to learn multiple needle felting techniques to transform puffy piles of wool into a seasonal landscape with a full moon, spooky trees and rolling tree roots that feature dark shadows with 3D depth. You can add a flying witch if you want to add a little extra flair!

All materials and tools will be provided and include a 5x7 prepared wool base, silver blue and yellow blended batts, and solid color roving. The rich variety of prepared colors allows for a painterly approach to needle felting.

Paint some of the last autumn flowers in this technique class taught by Erika Elizabeth at the Gilley on Wednesday, Oct. 22 from 10:30am to 1pm. Using dried hydrangeas and painting from life, students will work in neutrals and blush tones incorporating wet into wet and drybrush techniques.  The cost is $36 per person for museum members and $43 for non-members.

Inspired by “Memories Fly Home,” the exhibit currently on display in the Museum’s special exhibit gallery, come learn the meditative art of landscape embroidery and begin stitching a gorgeous, wool-felt wall hanging with Emma Mary Murray at the Wendell Gilley Museum on Saturday, Nov. 1, from 10:30am to 1pm.

We’ll start with the basics of embroidery, from choosing colors to threading needles and tying knots, then move into how to depict light and topography with thread. Bring images of landscapes that are special to you, or use an image available at the Gilley. All materials provided. Suitable for beginners; all are welcome. The cost is $57 for Museum members and $65 for non-members.

Emma Mary Murray is an environmental artist and teacher based on Mount Desert Island. Her primary mediums are landscape embroidery and illustration; her work aims to foster a sense of place by connecting the viewer to the topography, light, and color of a specific view. She uses up-cycled materials when possible and believes that slowly making old things new again is an important form of climate action.

Emma Mary Murray is an environmental artist and teacher based on Mount Desert Island. Her primary mediums are landscape embroidery and illustration; her work aims to foster a sense of place by connecting the viewer to the topography, light, and color of a specific view. She uses up-cycled materials when possible and believes that slowly making old things new again is an important form of climate action.

Seal Cove artist and gardener Becky Keefe will share her curiosity, passion for lifelong learning, and her artwork at the Gilley on Tuesday, Nov. 4 as the Museum’s People-Nature-Art presenter for November. There will be a 6pm artist’s reception followed by her presentation at 7pm, which will be in person and simultaneously livecast. Both in-person and online attendance is free, but registration is required at www.wendellgilleymuseum.org/calendar.

Keefe is a lifelong gardener, botany nerd, birdwatcher, hiker, mushroom hunter, and wildlife enthusiast, who has lived on MDI since 1987. Her careers have inspired her creativity and expanded her horizons: cook, landscape design for a well-known Maine landscape architect, an administrative job at College of the Atlantic and, most recently, teaching special education at Mount Desert Island High School for twenty years. During all that time, art was Keefe’s respite.

“My connection to outdoor activities and my art have kept me grounded,” she says. 

She retired from teaching in 2020 and embraced more time to create, using all the many natural materials she gathered over the years, including her garden which is a years-long passion project.

Recently, Keefe has focused on work with fiber. This includes making natural dyes, eco-prints, felting, spinning yarn, sewing, and knitting. She has also combined art and nature by creating large-scale flower arrangements for events, and she has made several paintings.

 “I want to try my hand at nearly everything,” she says.

Becky approaches her creative explorations with questions: Why does that look like that? What is the science behind the medium or phenomena so I can recreate it? How can I capture this reaction to what I am seeing and feeling?

“The expression may change, but the inspiration stays the same,” she says. “It’s the beauty, colors and designs in nature.” 

People-Nature-Art is a monthly series that brings artists, writers, carvers, and creative types of all kinds to the Gilley to explore how nature and art interact in their work, and how their art impacts their own approach to nature.