“Tack” (detail) 5” x 5” encaustics and fabric by Deborah Loughlin. KINGFIELD — The Stadler Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of its summer season with exhibitions of work by Jim Donahue and Deborah Loughlin beginning June 26.

“Quintessence” is the title Donahue gave his show. One of several definitions of quintessence is “the pure and concentrated essence of a substance,” and Donahue made it his quest to seek and find this essence on his many walks, whether through the backyard or on trails through northern Maine.

The crucial part, according to Donahue, is to discover the unique setting that will give an elusive subject the most perfect embodiment, for instance a full moon of which there are only 12 opportunities a year.

Being self taught, he says he “stayed with that basic modesty that comes with the failures, successes, but above all surprises that come with the business of teaching yourself a trade.”

His equipment is basic; his tools are hiking boots, camping gear and a road map. Although his photographs are taken digitally, they were not recreated on a computer except for small adjustments that one could also achieve through the development process of 35 mm film.

It is not only “Rubber and Wax,” as Loughlin named her show, that constitute the main building blocks for her small sculptures, but the flotsam and jetsam you stumble over as you walk the beaches in Casco Bay, the innumerable cast off objects tangled up in a mess of fish line and auto parts, as well.

She calls herself a crow by nature, searching for and picking up shiny objects in order to reconfigure, to make her art. Rubber is being pulled and stretched, wax applied as finish so that everything fits, holds together.

Her goal is to create a sense of history by using objects one might discard and returning them in another form.

For more information on the artist, visit www.dragonflyhoney.com.

There will be a closing reception for the artists on Friday, July 16, from 2 to 4 p.m.

The exhibitions will be on view from June 26 through July 16 daily from noon to 4 p.m., or by appointment.

Visit www.stadlergallery.com for more information. The gallery is located on Main Street in Kingfield just south of the main village.