Artist Gay Bechtelheimer debuts an exhibition of her new works, entitled “Outermost,” in SAAC’s Merkle Gallery. Her work, which includes watercolor, pastel, and collage, will be on display May 7-28. The bold, colorful, and emotional pieces will be unveiled to the public with a reception on the evening of May 7, starting at 6:30 p.m. Each piece is a different exploration of the artist’s point of view, from dramatic seascapes to diminutive abstracts.

Bechtelheimer, a retired educator from the El Dorado Public Schools, looks to a diverse group of sources for inspiration in her work. The primary drivers for this body of work were the atmosphere and aesthetics that she experienced on a recent trip to Cape Cod. “I was not prepared for the expanse of sea and sky that I was going to see,” she said. “You go to the outermost point of our continent, and the magnificent, vast horizon is the only thing in front of you. There is a profound, eternal certainty to those waves.”

The exhibition’s title is drawn from the book “The Outermost House” by Henry Beston. He, along with Henry David Thoreau and Robert Finch are the preeminent chroniclers of this stretch of shoreline, and passages from their writings are also included on the gallery’s walls.