As anyone who has tried to purchase property in the past year knows, Portland has a pressing need for diverse, affordable housing. The city’s newly adopted building code contains a major coup on that front, allowing for the creation of … Continue reading →

Unlike so many artists drawn to Maine for its arresting landscapes and jagged coastline, the pioneering modernist Marsden Hartley (1877–1943) was born here. A Lewiston native, Hartley had a complicated relationship with his home. Bleak occurrences—his mother dying when he … Continue reading →

Imagine life in Belle Époque Paris, the center of the modern art world in France. You are a 33-year-old American woman, an artist. After studying at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, you find your work has been well received, … Continue reading →

Every July the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland hosts a monumental summer gala—their largest fund-raising event of the year—complete with dinner, dancing, and cavorting on the museum grounds. The party’s purpose is to present the Maine in America Award, honoring … Continue reading →

On September 30, 1976, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art opened Two Centuries of Black American Art: 1750-1950. It was the museum’s preeminent exhibition for the American bicentennial year. The sweeping show, which featured over 200 works by 63 known … Continue reading →

Just before the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia, in a letter dated March 31, 1776, Abigail Adams wrote to her husband, “I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors.” As … Continue reading →

When bringing to mind a sea chest, one’s thoughts may drift directly to the bottom of the ocean floor, a wooden box propped open like a clamshell, golden coins spilling forth, shimmering and forgotten. While some riches may have been … Continue reading →

Before Roy Lichtenstein created his famous Pop paintings using Ben Day dots, he explored abstraction and modern art. An exhibition at the Colby College Museum of Art that features 90 works from Lichtenstein’s early years, Roy Lichtenstein: History in the … Continue reading →

I can’t remember a time when I have not been drawing and painting,” says noted 97-year-old artist Ashley Bryan. As an illustrator, painter, author, printmaker, storyteller, and puppet maker, Bryan is one of Maine’s most celebrated artists. His paintings are varied … Continue reading →

In early August, the University of Maine’s Zillman Art Museum welcomed works by painter and sculptor JoAnne Carson. Known for her seriocomic style, Carson’s pieces are an ethereal interpretation of elements in nature. An eight-foot sculpture titled Chlorophylia (For a … Continue reading →