Mindscapes: ‘Summer Memories’ at CFPL captures vivid moments

Imagine a garden in full bloom, boats bobbing in a Maine harbor, and a toddler and her grandmother watering flowers.

For Lucinda Hamilton, these aren’t simply picturesque scenes. They’re moments she worried might fade with time.

Hamilton’s upcoming exhibit, “Summer Memories,” at the Acton Free Public Library brings together oil paintings inspired by her family and travels that have shaped her life. The exhibit will be on display through July. An artist reception at the library will be held tomorrow from 2 to 4 p.m.

The collection of art grew during a turbulent time in Hamilton’s life. 

“Seeing things with different eyes, becoming a new mom, and then dealing with aging parents at the same time was really framing up seeing things differently,” Hamilton says.

She turned to painting to help her remember special places she visited. 

Although she grew up in a creative family — with a mother who quilted, a woodworker father, and a sister she considered the “actual artist” of the family — Hamilton never imagined herself becoming a painter. Instead, she spent years sewing before picking up a beginner watercolor set in early 2020 after watching online tutorials.

“I went into it expecting, ‘I’m going to mess up. I’m going to fail, but I’m going to learn from it,’” she says.

A switch to oil

After her daughter was born, Hamilton switched from watercolor to oil paints, finding the slower-drying medium better suited to life with a young child. Unlike watercolor, oil enabled her to step away when motherhood demanded it and return to a canvas later.

Today, living in Dracut, Hamilton balances painting with a full-time career in consumer electronics, creating artwork during evenings and spare moments.

Many of the paintings were derived from photographs taken during family vacations or walks through places that carried emotional weight. One depicts the garden outside her parents’ Pennsylvania home. Another shows her parents from behind during the final garden tour they shared.

Other works capture familiar New England landscapes — including Perkins Cove, Rockport, and Walden Pond — alongside scenes from summers spent visiting grandparents in Tucson, Arizona.

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Rather than simply documenting locations, Hamilton hopes the paintings encourage viewers to consider the deeper connection they hold to places in their memory.

“There’s a lot of nostalgia in my painting that’s very personal,” she says. “It’s also just trying to capture moments in time.”

The exhibit features oil paintings completed over the past year, along with a handful of smaller studies and early watercolors that reveal how individual works developed before reaching the final canvas. 

For Hamilton, the paintings preserve memories she doesn’t want to lose. She hopes visitors leave thinking about the moments worth holding onto in their own lives.

“I hope they find some type of connection back to those places that are special to them,” she says.