‘Steady Horizons and Twilight Hours,” original paintings by MJ Benson and Mary Jo Roth, are hanging at CIA cafe in South Portland’s Knightville neighborhood.

An opening reception will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Sunday at CIA, 72 Ocean St. The exhibit will be on display through July 15. A portion of the proceeds from opening night will go toward Benson’s fundraising goal for the Maine Cancer Foundation’s Tri For A Cure.

Benson’s current paintings mirror the constant changes in the mood of the ocean and atmosphere against the steady horizon. A Maine resident, she draws from her lifelong experience as a landscape photographer. She has a BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and her photographs are in many corporate and private collections.

On Benson’s website, she says she started as a photographer because she couldn’t draw.

“It’s a constant battle,” Benson says in her artist’s statement. “Photography helps me see, pay attention, get it down. Jewelry making satisfies a need for using my hands to create something. And painting, it’s a happy melding of the two needs for capturing a visual idea but making it through my own hands.”

Roth paints the world around her. She captures Maine’s twilight hours with vivid blues and deep tracery of branches framing the islands and city. Her paintings range from small vignettes to larger pieces incorporating a broader vista.

For more information about the exhibit, call 747-4414.