A 2025 Recap — The Willard Gallery

As I sat down to write the gallery’s fifth yearly recap post, I took the time to go back through the reviews for all of the previous years, since we opened in 2021. What a treasure it is to be able to relive these first five years in business. I am continually amazed that this is a job I get to do and that these are the artists I get to work with.

2025 was another wonderful year for the gallery and I am truly grateful that we continue to see year over year growth. Our artists were highlighted in a number of media outlets including: Maine Home + Design, Decor Maine, Boston Home Magazine, and the gallery was even mentioned in a Conde Nast Traveler feature on The Weldon Hotel. The partnership with this downtown hotel came about in 2025 and since then we’ve been able to hang two different installations of work in the common areas of the hotel. We love that through this collaboration we’ve been able to give our artists a bit of coveted square footage in Portland’s Old Port.

We were able to spend time with 11 of our 27 artists here in person this year, a fact I do not take for granted considering that many of them live a plane ride away. Donna Bruni came to visit from Minneapolis, Andras Bality drove up from Virginia to paint plein air in Massachusetts & Maine, Richard Kooyman & Melanie Parke visited from Michigan for their fall show, and I even took a spin through the Ogunquit Museum of Art with Theresa Drapkin’s family. Making memories with our artists and their families is a gift to me.

October brought a special show and event: Richard Kooyman & Melanie Parke’s Among Other Things collection and the brunch we threw in honor of their visit. I began following Richard & Melanie’s work in 2013 - almost a decade before opening The Willard Gallery - so having them here for a weekend and getting to share meals and conversation with them was a true treat for us. In her blog post on the event and show, Melanie wrote:

“This is a gallery that has built a business model on kindness, and the care they give to every detail is deeply felt. We wanted to spend time with Meredith and Michael, and they drenched us in the warmest hospitality.”

A gallery built on kindness. There is no higher praise.

Thank you to everyone who has been a part of this journey and who continues to be.

Scroll down for some highlights from another full year at the gallery. For a further walk down memory lane, visit our 2024 recap + 2023 recap + 2022 recap + 2021 recap posts.

We were so excited to see the home of Samantha & Ryan Pappas - dear friends and gallery supporters - featured in the *Maine Home + Design* Art Issue! Their home features art by Anne Darby Parker, Julie Bowers Murphy, cee & she, and Ellen Rolli.

March brought our partnership with The Weldon Hotel in downtown Portland. We installed about 10 paintings in the common areas of the hotel to be enjoyed by guests, all of which are available for purchase at the gallery.

In September we rehung our installation with a fresh batch of paintings!

Lou Schellenberg’s painting was highlighted in the spring Small Spaces issue of *Maine Home + Design*. This family also has works by Andras Bality & Jeanine Sobell Pastore on their walls.

What a thrill it was to see Beth Munro’s painting featured in a stunning installation by interior designer Salt Point Studio in Boston Home Magazine!

The gallery was profiled in *Decor Maine’s* summer Art Issue and we were especially excited to see that they chose a lead in image that included Thatcher the gallery dog!

Richard Kooyman & Melanie Parke debuted their *Among Other Things* show which featured 18 of their landscape and still life paintings.

We celebrated having Richard & Melanie here from Michigan with a festive morning brunch in the garden with local collectors of their work. This was certainly a special highlight of our year.

Our DIY Gallery Garden Project, which we began in May and worked on throughout the summer season, was finished and we couldn’t have been happier with the results.

Two Maine-based artists joined The Willard Gallery’s roster this year - cee & she and Megan Magill.

Julie Bowers Murphy sent along seven new paintings that make up her *Wherever the Boat Takes Us* collection.

Ahead of the 2025 holiday season, we launched Wish Lists to make gift giving a little easier!

Our 2025 Holiday Small Works show was announced just before Thanksgiving!

In addition to works by several of our gallery artists, we were both delighted and grateful to welcome works by Greta Van Campen for the first time!

A final work of art to wrap up the year was the holiday card by Bea Barber that we commissioned. She has provided us with numerous watercolor illustrations of the gallery dog over the years and we couldn’t be more grateful to her for sharing her talents with us.

Favorite Installs of 2025

With 120+ paintings placed in homes & businesses in 2025, we only have photos of a fraction of them. Here are a few that stood out to us from the year!