—ROBERT LEVIN PHOTOS

Linda Rowell-Kelley’s colorful paintings are born from presence. She’s enamored of the process, of letting her eye roam over rugged ridges of bark, through vast fields of flowers, around gleaming red corners. She’s set up to receive the sense of a place, the smell of the breeze, and whatever might filter in.

Linda Rowell-Kelley

“Painting is the one place that I have always felt very comfortable,” Ms. Rowell-Kelley says. Her own hand-painted, floral tile mosaic smiles from the kitchen wall behind her. A riot of color graces the entryway into the pantry, and, from the half-dark beyond, still more splashes beckon. Bunches of lupines, all soft purples and warm pinks, pop up around the room.

No surface is safe, she says. “Terry (her husband) says I’ll paint anything … I painted on my shoes, I did the tiles, I painted these doors …” she trails off, her gaze wandering the room.

The process, at all times careful studying and making of adjustments, is not oriented toward the goal, she says. The paintings are a gift, but the process, that is a necessity. It informed her days through art school four decades ago, and continues to draw her back.

“It’s part of my inner self, or, my spiritual self, that is creating,” she says. “It’s the one part of my life that’s always in the moment.”

Paintings by Linda Rowell-Kelley are on display, and for sale, at Bar Harbor Savings and Loan through Tuesday, April 14.The bank is located at 103 Main Street, and is open Monday through Thursday, 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Fridays from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.