Imago Foundation for the Arts (IFA) will feature paintings by IFA artist Eileen Mayhew and guest artist Alyn Carlson in a group exhibit May 11 through June 11 at IMAGO Gallery, 36 Market Street. A free, public reception will be held on Friday, May 12 from 6 – 8 p.m.

For this exhibit, Mayhew has created a series of panoramic, oil paintings on panel of the southern shoreline of the Kickemuit River known as Bristol Narrows. The series, called “Coastal Communities,” is an extension of previous series she has done of other Rhode Island shorelines. She says, “I wish to create a painted interpretation of the shoreline as it appears in my lifetime, especially in light of the threat of global warming, which is currently changing coastlines worldwide.” Her award-winning portraits and landscape paintings are held in public and private collections in the United States and as far abroad as India.

Based in New England, Carlson is a painter, author, graphic designer, performer and paper artist who writes a blog called Colorgirl. She says, “My art is about color, line and texture stopping me and bringing me to a place where the emotional and the physical become one. With line, I explore, defining the feeling and space that color begins in my paintings. In my paintings, the layers of pigment, pull and push of color and drawing, the sensual, abstract and representational elements that surface, give me a geography to live and work in.” Her art and designs have been featured in numerous blogs and published in magazines and her paintings are featured in books such as Deborah Forman’s Paint lab and Grace Bonney’s Design Sponge at Home.

Other IMAGO artists who will be exhibiting include Douglas Breault, Eileen Siobhan Collins, Rose Esson-Dawson, Mary Dondero, Betty Harrington, Carl Keitner, Pascale Lord, Linda Megathlin, Yolanda Mazzoni, Mercedes Nuñez, Anne Marie Rossi, Howard Rotblat-Walker, Lenny Rumpler, and Howard Windham.