The Art of Lobsterboats Essay

The Art of Lobsterboats
Visual Essay

1
The Lobster Boat Race, Stonington
William Irvine (1931- ), Scottish/American
Oil on museum board, 36" x 26" (w x h), 2012
Courthouse Gallery of Fine Art, Ellsworth, ME

Source: Courthouse Gallery of Fine Art, edited
William Irvine (1931- ) is a Scottish/American who lives in Maine. He's known for his seascapes, as well as figurative paintings, and still lifes. Born in Troon, a small coastal village on the Atlantic coast of Scotland, in 1953 he graduated with a degree in drawing and painting from the Glasgow School of Art. He painted in London for ten years. In 1960 he met and married Stephanie Schram, an American student studying in London. In 1968, they moved to Downeast Maine, Irvine drawn to the fishing villages of Corea and Jonesport. Harbor, boats, islands and the sea and sky, inspired bold work fueled by abstraction and representation. A few years later, Irvine and Stephanie bought a house in Blue Hill, Maine, the old attached barn became Irvine's studio for the next forty-two years. In 1985, Stephanie died after a long illness. In 1995 he married Margery Wilson. They built a house and studio overlooking the sea in Brooklin, Maine. Marshall Wilkes published two books on Irvine's work: William Irvine: A Painter's Journey by Carl Little (2014); and William Irvine: At Home (2018), a collection of Irvine's small white house paintings. See more of his art and books about him at the Courthouse Gallery HERE.

2

Peak Island and Lobster Boat
Fairfield Porter (1907-1975), American
Oil on board, 15" x 14" (w x h), 1968
Sotheby's 2013 auction sold $75,000 USD

Source: Original, Wiki, edited
This painting appears full page in the book Fairfield Porter by John Wilmerding and Karen Wilkin, Rizzoli, New York, NY, 2016. Fairfield Porter (1907-1975) was an American painter and art critic. While a student at Harvard, Porter majored in fine arts; he continued his studies at the Art Students' League when he moved to New York City in 1928. His studies at the Art Students' League predisposed him to produce socially relevant art and, although the subjects would change, he continued to produce realist work for the rest of his career. He was criticized and revered for continuing his representational style in the midst of the Abstract Expressionist movement. Many of his paintings were set in or around the family summer house on Great Spruce Head Island, Maine and the family home at 49 South Main Street, Southampton, New York. Porter said, "When I paint, I think that what would satisfy me is to express what Bonnard said Renoir told him: Make everything more beautiful."

3

Sleeping In
Bobbi Heath (1951- ), American
Oil, 12" x 12" (w x h), 2016
$565 USD, sold

Source: the artist's website, edited
On Summer Sunday mornings lobstermen sleep in, hence the title. The location is Cozy Harbor, Southport, ME. Bobbi Heath (1951- ) grew up in coastal Texas. She had a technology education and a career in chip making and software development. However, she always pursued drawing and painting. Today she paints full time, often plein air. She has a focus on boats. Bobbi and her husband have had three sailboats and a lobster boat style cruiser. She splits her time between the Maine coast in summer and Massachusetts in the winter. Sailing the coast in their lobsterboat she finds inspiration. Bobbi is represented by Yarmouth Frame and Gallery in Yarmouth, ME, and The Drawing Room in New Bedford, MA. She's participated in many Plein Air Festivals, including Ocean Park (ME), Castine (ME), Long Beach Island (NJ), and Brandywine (PA). I've painted with Bobbi in Castine, ME, Brandywine, PA and Monhegan, ME. She also took my plein air painting class in Springvale, ME. The artist's website is HERE.

4

Keen
Ryan Kohler (1987- ), American
Mixed media on canvas, 20" x 20" (w x h), circa 2023-2024
$1,585, Portland Art Gallery, Portland, ME

Source: Portland Art Gallery, edited
Ryan Kohler, a 38-year-old Maine artist, earned a BA in Art from the University of Maine at Augusta in 2011, concentrating on drawing. Representational painting remains his foundation, yet he pushes beyond the literal by building acrylic underpaintings and then adding pieces of maps, album covers, posters, and found papers. Ryan works mostly from photographs, and when possible, paints on site. Boats and harbor architecture present a favorite challenge, while nearby streams and woodlands offer quieter cues. "I love the challenge of trying to capture things that make Maine uniquely Maine." Ryan lives and works in Skowhegan with his wife, young son, dog, two studio cats, two goats, and a handful of chickens. He paints daily in his self-renovated studio above his garage, a warm, light-filled space that reflects his hands-on approach. His work is in Maine art galleries.

5

Breaking Light
Colin Page (1977- ), American
Oil on canvas, 36" x 24", w x h, circa 2022-2023
$6,000, Greenhut Galleries, Portland, ME

Source: Colin Page Gallery, edited
Colin Page (1977- ), raised in Baltimore, Maryland, studied painting at the Rhode Island School of Design and at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. He lives and works in Camden, Maine, where he opened the Page Gallery in 2019, which not only shows his art but the art of others. Colin paints the Maine landscape and scenes that show his life as a father. "When I first moved to Maine, I painted everything I saw because of its newness. After 20 years here, now I paint the landscape, my children, and our home life through the eyes of familiarity. I know the people who live in the houses and some of the lobstermen who drive the boats. I've walked the rocky shore with my children. This history with the subject brings an intimacy of shared experiences." His paintings have been featured in solo exhibitions and group shows nationally, including the Kaiping Museum of Art in China, LA Natural History Museum, Annual Juried Show by the Guild of Boston Artists, Portsmouth Historical Society, Laguna Beach Plein Air Invitational, and the Maynard Dixon Camp Out by the Thunderbird Foundation. He is in the Farnsworth Museum, Rockland, Maine collection. Visit the website of the Page Gallery HERE. I painted with Colin and a group of painters in 2011.

6

Lobster Boat with Pink Buoys and Lobster Traps
Rachael Van Dyke (1972- ), American
Acrylic on paper, 11" x 14" (w x h), 2021
Sold

Source: The artist's website, edited
Rachael Van Dyke lives off the grid in the Blue Ridge mountains. She received her MAE at Kendall College of Art and Design, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Rachel has participated in over 20 art residency programs, including the Golden Apple Art Studio (Harrington, ME) website HERE, Keeneland Raceway (KY), United States National Park Service (Isle Royale), Mackinac Island State Historic Parks (MI), Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VA), and others in France, Ireland, Italy and Spain. The artist's website is HERE. Her Maine Paintings are HERE.

7

She's Got Nice Lines
Philip Frey (1967- ), American
Oil on linen panel, 10" x 8", circa 2014-2015
$900, sold
Maine Art Hill Gallery, Kennebunk, ME

This is a small study for a later and  uncanny identical large version, Facets, oil on canvas, 48" x 36" (w x h), 2017, in the collection of the artist, and is the frontispiece of Philip Frey: Here and Now, Daniel Kay and Carl Little, Marshall Wilkes Fine Art Publishers, Ellsworth, ME, 2018.

Source: College of the Atlantic, Courthouse Gallery, edited
Philip Frey, born in Portland, Maine in 1967, studied at Columbus College of Art and Design and graduated with a Bachelor's of Fine Arts in Painting from Syracuse University in 1990. His early studies with artist Alan Bray were a major influence. Philip resides in a simple home and paints in a secluded studio in the woods of Sullivan, Maine. Having lived in Maine most of his life, Philip has a strong connection to the state. His work focuses on rural and urban landscapes, working fishing villages, interior spaces and figures. He paints plein air, using photographic references with his larger studio work. In 2016, the University of Maine Museum of Art mounted a solo exhibition of Frey's work. His work has been highlighted in several books, including Art of Acadia (2016) and Paintings of Portland (2018), both by brothers Carl Little and David Little, and in numerous publications, including: Art New England, Gettysburg Review, Maine Policy Review, and the Maine Sunday Telegram. His website is HERE.

8

Boat Wake
Stephen Pace (1918-2010), American
Oil on canvas, 36" x 28" (w x H), 1978
Brunk Auctions, Asheville, NC, 2022 sold $8,500 USD

Source: Stephen and Palmina Pace Foundation
Born in Missouri in 1918, Stephen Pace began formal art training at 17-years-old with WPA painter Robert Lahr. He continued honing his skills while serving as an Army artist in England and France during World War II, painting scenes of combat and local landscapes. Upon his return, he studied with Hans Hofmann, who had a tremendous and immediate impact on his work. During the 1950s Pace became an influential member of the Abstract Expressionist movement. In the mid-1960s, Pace returned to figurative painting in a style characterized by simplified forms, broad brushwork, and imaginative colors. He most often painted his immediate surroundings, finding inspiration in the coastline and fishing village of Stonington, Maine, where he and his wife, Palmina, owned a studio and home. Pace died in 2010. Visit the Stephen and Palmina Pace Foundation HERE.