Piper Shores is pleased to invite the community to the 19th Annual Autumnal Equinox Resident Art Show, a celebration of creativity and lifelong artistic exploration. This year’s show will be held on Saturday, September 20th, from 1:00 to 4:00 PM at Piper Shores’ Oceanside campus in Scarborough. Free and open to the public, the event will feature a broad collection of original artwork created by Piper Shores residents—including this year’s featured artist, sculptor Peg Ridgely.
“You Just Remove Everything That Isn’t the Bird”

A lifelong bird watcher and nature lover, Peg Ridgely began carving wooden bird sculptures while raising her young children in Wisconsin. Inspired by old books on decoy carving, she recalls thinking, “That doesn’t look like the bird—I could do that.” One weeklong woodcarving course later, she was hooked.
Over the years, Peg’s work expanded to include stone, clay, and bronze, but her love for wildlife remained central to her art. “I’ve always liked creating animals and birds,” she says. “And I knew the birds. I’d carve them, then paint them.” Peg often sold her carvings at craft shows across the Midwest, eventually taking her talents to the next level through stone sculpture classes at a museum in Philadelphia.
Peg’s transition from wood to stone felt natural. Though both use traditional tools like chisels and mallets, the materials require different approaches: “Stone work is all reduction. You just remove everything that isn’t the bird from the stone,” she says with a laugh. “But that’s a simplification, obviously.”
While she no longer sculpts, Peg continues to explore her creativity in new ways. She’s taken up gardening in the summer and rug hooking in the winter, an activity she enjoys while her husband catches up on the evening news. “I think, maybe I’ll go back to sculpture… but it’s been too many years,” she adds thoughtfully.
A Journey from Iowa to the Maine Coast
Originally from Iowa, Peg has lived in Wisconsin, Philadelphia, and New Hampshire—roughly two decades in each place—before finally settling at Piper Shores. Her move wasn’t exactly planned. While accompanying a friend on a retirement community tour, she unexpectedly fell in love with the coast of Maine and the welcoming atmosphere of Piper Shores.
When her husband returned from a work trip abroad, she urged him to visit. “And damned if there wasn’t a snowy owl perched on the roof of this building,” she recalls. “He said, ‘I could get used to this place.’”
Now full-time residents since the COVID-19 pandemic, Peg and her husband are grateful for the sense of community and the access to continuing care. “I love it here. I really do,” she says.
A Creative Life Well Lived
From decoy birds to bronze castings, Peg Ridgely’s artistic journey is a story of curiosity, craft, and quiet determination. Her work reflects a deep connection to the natural world and a mastery of form, with each piece conveying a sense of motion and personality. While Peg hasn’t officially declared her featured piece for the show (a surprise for those who attend!), one standout work—her striking Eagle and its baby sculpture made of alabaster stone—offers a preview of the remarkable talent you’ll find throughout the exhibition.
She’s created hundreds of pieces in her lifetime, dozens of which are currently on display at the Bigelow Arts Center. Her work reveals a deep connection to the natural world and a commitment to the slow, thoughtful process of creation—whether in wood, stone, or clay.
“I didn’t like to use power tools,” Peg notes of her stonework. “If you make a mistake, you’ve had it. So it was more of just taking your time.”
That careful, patient spirit continues to define her work and her outlook. Be sure to stop by this year’s Autumnal Resident Art Show to view Peg’s sculpture alongside the work of fellow resident artists—and to celebrate the many ways creativity thrives at every stage of life.