Jamie Wyeth
Paintings
July 1 through August 21

James Browning Wyeth was born in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania in 1946. The son and grandson of two of this country’s most admired painters, James has two aunts and uncles who are also well-known artists. He has said: “Everybody in my family paints – excluding possibly the dogs.” Consequently, Wyeth was immersed in the study and making of art since childhood. While still a teenager, his carefully crafted realistic works were acquired by museums and private collectors, and he soon became a much sought-after artist in his own right. Wyeth’s first recognition came as a result of his exceptional portraiture works, including a celebrated posthumous portrait of President John F. Kennedy and other cultural icons such as Rudolph Nureyev, Arnold Schwarzengger and Andy Warhol. Today, he is also as renowned for his “portraits” of the animals (such as pigs, chickens, dogs, cattle, rams and seagulls), and the individuals who inhabit the rural Pennsylvania and Maine environments where he divides his time.

While the persuasive realism of his paintings may initially attract the attention of viewers, it is Wyeth’s empathic representation of subjects that make his work so compelling. Whether it is a human, an animal or a landscape, we seem to gain a deeper insight from seeing it through the all-encompassing eyes of Jamie Wyeth. Like many great American painters (such as Winslow Homer, Albert Pinkham Ryder, Thomas Eakins and Edward Hopper), the verisimilitude in Wyeth’s work is greatly informed and enhanced by a sense of stillness, isolation and an undercurrent of melancholy. These traits are especially evident in the works influenced by the coastal and farming locales in which he lives and paints. This exhibition will include Pennsylvania and Maine-inspired examples of his figurative, animal and landscape paintings (oils and watercolors) created during the past four decades.

Wyeth has had numerous one-man exhibitions and has received many awards and honors during his career, including his appointment as a member of the National Endowment for the Arts. He is also a member of the National Academy of Design and the American Watercolor Society. His works are in numerous private and public collections, including the National Gallery of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Brandywine River Museum and the John F. Kennedy Library.

This exhibition is made possible by a generous grant from Kennebunk Savings Bank, Kennebunk, Maine, with additional funding from Barnacle Billy's Restaurant, Ogunquit, Maine.
(return to 2007 events)

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Jacob Lawrence
Prints 1963-2000
July 1 through August 21

Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000) spent his childhood in various locations until moving with his family to New York City in 1930. There he attended art classes at the Harlem Community Art Center and the American Artists School. In 1938, he was hired by the Federal Art Project easel division and required to complete two paintings every six weeks. Many of these paintings were genre scenes of life in Harlem. In 1940, he began work on what would become one of his most famous creations, a series of sixty paintings on “the great Negro migration during the World War.” One year later he joined New York’s Downtown Gallery and became the first African American artist to be represented by a major New York commercial gallery. In 1942 the Museum of Modern Art purchased works from The Migration of the Negro series, and Lawrence became the first African American to have work represented in the collection of MOMA.

In 1963 Lawrence completed his first limited-edition print, a lithograph entitled "The Rebels." Over the next thirty-seven years he would produce an extraordinary body of prints, including etchings, drypoints, silk screens, and woodcuts. This exhibition will include thirty-six of those prints, including pieces from his series on builders, the life of Frederick Douglas, the Great Migration and the Book of Genesis.

Lawrence was a distinguished educator, teaching at the University of Washington, the New School for Social Research and the Art Students League in New York, and at Maine’s Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Lawrence was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1965, and the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1983. He was the recipient of numerous other awards, including the National Medal of Arts and the National Arts Club Medal of Honor. His works are represented in many major American collections, including The Art Institute of Chicago, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the OMAA.
(return to 2007 events)

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Connie Hayes
Pastels and Oils from France
July 1 through August 21

In May of 2006, Rockland, Maine painter Connie Hayes traveled to the small French township of Courtonne-la-Meurdrac. Her destination was the family farm owned by Star and Yves Eonnet. For several weeks during walks in the countryside, trips to local markets and visits to nearby villages and towns, Hayes spent her time drawing and using pastels to make sketches for the landscape paintings that would be completed upon her return to Rockland. This exhibition will be the first showing of a selection of those oils and will include numerous examples of the on-site pastel drawings.

Hayes (b. 1952) is well-known for her series of “Borrowed Views” paintings. The project began in the 1990s when the artist accepted invitations to stay at homes that offered her a private and inspirational place to paint. For more than a decade, Hayes created what she called her own “personal artist-in-residence” program, painting scores of locales in Maine and outside the state. Hayes’ visit to the Eonnet farm was arranged when the owners saw an exhibit of her “borrowed views” paintings. Hayes writes: “The farm was even more beautiful than anticipated… the flow of terrace, gardens and barnyard was punctuated with colored explosions of peonies, poppies, roses, and other opportunities to paint countless variations and arrangements of intense color. I began to translate this visual richness in gentle steps, peeking around each corner, taking notes with words, sketches and photographs in an attempt to discover the spirit of the place.” With her usual masterful handling of vibrant colors and an unerring eye for composition, Hayes has created a series of oils and pastels that vividly convey the sun drenched farmhouse (both exterior and interior scenes) and the beautiful surrounding French countryside.

Hayes holds degrees from the Maine College of Art and the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. Her works are in numerous private and public collections, including the University of Maine Museum of Art, the Rockefeller Collections and the OMAA.

This exhibition is sponsored by The Sparhawk Oceanfront Resort, Ogunquit.
(return to 2007 events)

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Lincoln Perry
Paintings
August 27 through October 31

Lincoln Perry was born in New York City in 1949, and received his education at Columbia University and Queens College. Described as “a figurative painter of narratives,” Perry’s elegantly crafted paintings have been compared to such European masters as Poussin, de Chirico and Balthus. In addition to his work as an easel painter, Perry is also an accomplished muralist and sculptor. This exhibition will consist of a selection of oils and watercolors created by the artist during the past three decades.

Many of Perry’s compositions consist of multiple panels (occasionally as many as twelve) that are affixed to create a single square or rectangular painting. These series of panels are a perfect form for this narrative painter whose images are fashioned to be viewed from multiple viewpoints and perspectives. Unfolding in a film-like sequence, Perry’s often allegorical images and storylines purposefully cultivate an ambiguity that engages the viewer both visually and intellectually. Rather than answers and solutions, Perry’s work is best known for the questions it asks and the possibilities it presents. A gifted draftsman known for his exquisite figures and masterful compositions, Perry is also a fine colorist. His paintings are saturated by a juxtaposition of vibrant hues that infuse even his smallest oils with a dynamic energy and powerful presence.

Perry has taught at the University of Arkansas and the University of New Hampshire. Since 2001 he has been Distinguished Visiting Artist at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. His works are in many private and public collections, including the University of Virginia Art Museum and Metropolitan Life. Perry’s mural commissions include Cabell Hall at the University of Virginia; Lincoln Square in Washington, D.C.; the Federal Courthouse in Tallahassee, Florida; and the Met Life Building in St. Louis, Missouri.
(return to 2007 events)

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Watercolors from the OMAA Permanent Collection
August 27 through October 31

The Permanent Collection of the Ogunquit Museum of American Art contains over 1,600 works of art. Among the Museum’s finest holdings are an outstanding variety of watercolor paintings. This exhibition will comprise a selection of these exceptional watercolors. Among the artists represented in the show will be Edward Betts, Charles Burchfield, Charles Demuth, DeWitt Hardy, Peter Hurd, Bernard Karfiol, Walt Kuhn, John Wesley Little, John Marin, Reginald Marsh, Robert Eric Moore, Eliot O’Hara, William Preston, David von Schlegell, Charles Woodbury, William Zorach and Marguerite Zorach.
(return to 2007 events)