All of the pieces in the exhibit were created using gold-leaf technique. In O'Brien's pieces, the metallic backgrounds are met with subject matter from coastal Maine, from pine trees to fishing boats. 

'I used to live in a small fishing village in Japan, and now I live in Maine, so I think of them as a sort of wedding between my two cultures,' O'Brien says. 

O'Brien keeps her pieces as traditional as possible while still trying to keep them affordable. During the lengthy process, she uses seaweed glue to stretch wet paper onto a canvas. The paper is then water proofed before the gold leaf is added. The pigments are made by grinding rocks. Traditionally, the white pigments in a gold leaf piece are made by grinding pearls, but O'Brien says she keeps the paintings in budget by using seashells instead. She also uses a Chinese gold leaf composite made of zinc and copper on most of her pieces, making the astronomical affordable. 

'I believe that art should be affordable and accessible for everyone,' O'Brien says. 'It should be lived with and enjoyed.' 

O'Brien says that she came to art later in life. She jokes that it took her five years to learn how to draw, because she believed that the skill was so foundational to art. 

'I kept sketchbooks religiously,' she says. 

O'Brien originally worked in oil and pastels. Due to a seriously ill child, however, she had to get rid of her supplies. She turned to water colors, but said that they quickly became cliche. She started remembering some of the calligraphy strokes that she had learned when she lived in Japan. O'Brien says that she loved the freedom that it gave her, and she started looking into the gold leafing process. She says she spent some time at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts before traveling back to Japan. There, she visited one of the two gold leafing capitals. 

Today, O'Brien has a studio and gallery in Winter Harbor. She has college interns that study with her, and she's thankful that she can make a living from her art. 

'I've been blessed,' O'Brien says. 

To see some of O'Brien's work, visit whopaints.com.