Exhibit: Artist’s Conks

Blue Hill, Maine - Orland artist Fern Stearns will exhibit her paintings on artist’s conks, along with some handcrafted seamless birch bark vases in the Blue Hill Public Library’s Larchwood cases located in the children’s room starting Wednesday September 5th and going to the end of October.  Her artist’s conks depict still life scenes and landscapes.

Artist’s conks are a type of “polypore” or “shelf mushroom. They grow on dead hardwood trees but also can grow on live sapwood, and eventually kill the tree. They grow up to 15 or 20 inches across.

Fern Stearns grew up in the mountains of western Maine and lived in the Stillwater/Milford area for 50 years. She has been painting for 30 years, and says that her family makes sure she is adequately supplied with artist’s conks. She and her late husband had 4 children, one of whom, David Stearns, lives in Blue Hill with his wife and two children, Aidan and Keira.

The exhibit will be available for viewing during regular Library hours. For more information call Pat at 374-5515.