From Farm to Canvas
Kerstin Engman, also known as Kris, is a talented New England-raised artist from Belfast, Maine. In 2012, Engman spent a growing season (seven months) traveling to and from her home in Belfast to a nearby pig farm as part of the Maine Farmland Trust program. This program was built to promote further knowledge about local farming to the people of Maine by bringing the farms to the public eye under a new light of artwork. From sunrise to sunset, they worked. Kris spectated and painted, while the farmers continued on with their daily chores.
Studying at the Maine College of Art, the Rhode Island School of Design and the University of Pennsylvania she made it her life’s mission to raise awareness on growing local through art and has been teaching school children through her knowledge on the issue. She has been an educator for most of her life in various locations around the world and is currently teaching at the University of Maine in Orono.
She was instantly intrigued by the way the animals and farmers worked and lived side by side creating a uniquely scheduled existence that appeared to be occurring both with the modern world and yet separated from it. Engman enjoyed watching from the sidelines, as she was able to closely observe the cycle of life for a pig on a farm from birth to death.
With this new insight she began her work on a series of farm paintings which she called the FEORM. Engman wanted to properly capture Maine’s connection with dairy farming and promote a local food movement within her community, so she began looking into more farms around the area. Each of the paintings in this series were miniature in size, but large in impact.
After the Maine Farmland Trust program that had connected artists with farmers had ended, Engman carried on her still-life painting collection through the local farmer’s market and with the vegetables in competition at the county agricultural fair. The way the produce were toted around in wooden crates and huge wired baskets had inspired her to carry forward the education of why buying local is best. She didn’t want to lose the feeling of serenity she received from farm life amongst all the chaos of today’s complicated society.
“I’m very worried about how we’re all going to make our way into a future where climate issues threaten and our children won’t have any sense of how the natural world has been our balancing and leveling aesthetic,” said Kris Engman.
Some paintings that resulted from these inspirations were: Tomatoes in Moonlight, Blue Ribbon Hens, Cherries in a Plastic Bag, and Fresh Carrots. Her favorite is the Brambles Washington November, as she feels the brambles best resemble her feelings for New England as home, even if most think of it as only a weed. Each of these were oil on panel. Many of these paintings were displayed at the Unity College Center for the Performing Arts in February 2017, in the Leonard R. Craig Gallery.
