As winter sets in and the days grow darker, I am reminded of the time in ancient Greece when caves symbolized the entrance to the classical underworld. A person entered the cave to seek wisdom in the darkness not the … Continue reading →

On an exposed granite ledge overlooking Perkins Cove perches the Ogunquit Museum of American Art (OMAA). Southern Maine’s modernist gem of whitewashed cinderblock, stone lintels, repurposed wood ceiling beams, and glass is celebrating 70 years with a number of concurrent … Continue reading →

The first time Robert McCloskey (1914–2003) explored the possibility of creating children’s books, he had the great fortune of being rejected by May Massee. Massee, an editor at Viking Press at the time, essentially told McCloskey, “Come back when you’ve … Continue reading →

I remember visiting the studio of an old man who painted nothing but the sea,” Reuben Tam (1916–1991) wrote of a trip to Monhegan Island in an undated note now collected in the Smithsonian Archives of American Art. “I thought … Continue reading →

When the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Madison opened its doors in 1946, the founders contacted schools around the country to recruit the best young art students to this unique new summer residency. The Cooper Union in New … Continue reading →

70 Main — Thomaston Within the town of Thomaston, several large green spaces provide a sense of freshness along Route 1. Between the closely spaced blocks of the town a visitor can catch glimpses of their surprising breadth. Situated in one … Continue reading →

When Winslow Myers was a senior at Philips Exeter Academy, he made a clay portrait bust of Ernest Hemingway. A cast was poured with “molten linotype metal” repurposed from the local community newspaper, and the resulting sculpture was juried into … Continue reading →

The intimate top-floor gallery of the Farnsworth Art Museum currently houses Louise Nevelson: Dawn to Dusk, an exhibition guest curated by Suzette McAvoy and drawn from the Farnsworth’s extensive Nevelson holdings, most of which were gifted to the museum by … Continue reading →

“When I’m in my studio getting bogged down in painting, I often look to (Marsden) Hartley for some guidance,” writes Dan Schein about his work in the painting-rich group exhibition And So Did Pleasure Take the Hand of Sorrow and … Continue reading →

At a recent international conference for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, a panel of art directors lamented a practical efficiency of our digital world: they rarely set their eyes on the original artwork from which their illustrated … Continue reading →