Delve into the art of paper-cutting with this nature Valentine’s workshop at the Gilley. You’ll make a heart-shaped piece of art from heavy paper and populate it with plants, birds, and wildlife using paper,  X-ACTO knives, and rulers. Learn easy cutting techniques and strategies for planning your picture. This will be taught by Bar Harbor artist Lynda Millar, who also teaches woodburning and beginner carving classes at the Museum. Space is limited and registration is required. Students must be at least 13 years old.

Join Maine master carver Joshua Brewer at the Wendell Gilley Museum for this one-day class to learn the finer points of mixing paint for carved wooden birds. Many carvers find painting their creations the hardest part of finishing them. This workshop allows you to spend time honing your skills with a master of the craft. Space is limited and reservations are required. All tools and materials will be provided.

Julie Crane is a multimedia artist who primarily depicts creatures – including a plethora of birds – surrounded by tiny, even microscopic, elements from the land and sea magnified to a great degree. Phytoplankton, seed pods, DNA strands, and even the flight pattern of birds co-mingle with animals commonly seen by humans.

Her work considers the impact of change on the environment in sculpture, intaglio, encaustic, paintings and woodprints. Some recent collaborations at marine laboratories in Maine have given her access to views of the single-cell organisms often included in her art.

By depicting microscopic elements swirling around and through subjects in amplified scale, she questions how people are impacted by influencers they can’t see.

A Maine native, she grew up in Camden and has been creating art for more than three decades. Her first exposure to art classes was in the basement of the Camden Library when she was six. Since then, Crane’s work has been shown in more than 40 exhibitions, including collections and museums in Russia, Paris and New York City.

While living and creating art in Santa Fe, New Mexico, she was represented by the Turner Carroll Gallery, and for more than a decade she remained in the rich art culture of the area, creating work that was shown internationally and acquired for permanent collections including The Citadelle Art Foundation of Texas, Museum of Women in the Arts and the Podesta Collection of Washington, D.C., and the Michael Woolworth Collection of Paris, France.

By 2000, Crane had returned to her Maine roots to and built her studio in Thomaston, a Maine town where she still lives with her husband.

People-Nature-Art is a free 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.

RESCHEDULED for Saturday, Feb. 28.

Expert needle-felter, fiber artist, and storyteller Hillary Dow of Binding Tales will lead this fun workshop at the Gilley, guiding participants through the process of creating a felted coral reef wall hanging. This workshop is suitable for all skill levels including beginners.

Learn needle felting techniques as you transform puffy piles of wool into a vivid and dynamic coral reef that features several types of coral in a variety of colors with dark shadows and 3D depth. Your wool supplies will include a 5x7 wool pre-felt; blue, purple, green and coral blended batts; and solid color roving. All the felting tools necessary to create your piece are provided, including several sizes of felting needles, single and multi-needle tools, finger guards, and a felting pad. The rich variety of prepared colors allows for a painterly approach to needle felting. All the wool used in this project is sourced from Maine fiber farms.

Hillary will display an author-illustrator showcase of original artwork as well as her children’s books, which will be available for sale. She is the author, illustrator and publisher of Binding Tales books, featuring pictures she has needle felted with wool sourced from Maine sheep. Born and raised in the western mountains of Maine, she now lives with her family in Hampden.