The Art of Coastal Lichens on Rock
Rock Lichen Abstract
Eliot Porter (1901 -1990), American
Photograph, Kromekote, triple coated glossy,
9" x 11" (w x h), circa 1950-1961, Northeastern US
Eliot Porter (1901 -1990) was a historically significant American photographer best known for his color photographs of nature and natural scenes. He found early inspiration photographing the birds on Maine's Great Spruce Head Island owned by his family. Porter earned a BA degree in chemical engineering from Harvard College and a Doctor of Medicine from Harvard Medical School, remaining at Harvard as a medical researcher. One of his five siblings was the painter and art critic Fairfield Porter, his younger brother. Fairfield introduced his older brother to photographer and gallery owner Alfred Stieglitz in about 1930. Stieglitz, after seeing Porter's work, encouraged Porter to work harder. Finally, in 1938, Stieglitz presented Porter's work, taken with a view camera, in his New York City gallery. The exhibit's success prompted Eliot Porter to pursue photography full-time. In his exhibit Intimate Landscapes was the first one-person show of color photography at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, crediting Eliot as the individual who brought credibility to color photography as a medium of fine art. His photographs have been exhibited internationally, and are held in important collections throughout the world.
High Tide
Fairfield Porter (1907-1975), American
Oil on board, 18" x 22" (w x h), 1973
Christie's 2020 auction sold $162,500 USD
Fairfield Porter (1907-1975), Eliot's younger brother, also went to Harvard but majored in fine arts. He continued his studies at the Art Students' League when he moved to New York City in 1928. Since he was a child, Porter spent the warmer months at his family's home on Maine's coastal Great Spruce Head Island. "I've been to Maine almost every summer since I was six. It's the place where most of all I feel myself to belong." Portraying the rocky shore and coastal islands of the area, High Tide painted at Great Spruce Head Island reflects his personal connection with the Maine landscape in realism, while exhibiting the more abstracted aesthetic of his later works. Reducing and simplifying the landforms, what remains is a representation of his surroundings. As in all of Porter's best works, High Tide delights in exploring the line between a reaction to natural light and a search for invented color.
Lichen and Snow on Rocks:
Georgetown, Maine
Nancy Barron (1967- ), American
Acrylic on birch panel, 12" x 12" (w x h), 2021.
L. C. Bates Museum, Hinckley, ME
"What ultimately caught my attention was an unearthly yellow lichen forming on some geometric stones on the tip of Indian Point (Georgetown, Maine). The precision of these yellow orb... sent my imagination soaring about who left this marking with the details as unique as a snowflake in patterns unimaginable." Nancy Barron (1967- ) born and raised in Farmingdale, Maine, studied at the University of Southern Maine. She's the Program Director at The Harlow Gallery in Hallowell, Maine. Nancy lives and works on the shore of the Kennebec River in South Gardiner, Maine.
The Intake at the Channel Inchydoney
Geraldine O'Sullivan (circa 1959- ), Irish
Acrylic, 24" x 29" (w x h), undated
$800 USD
Geraldine O'Sullivan (circa 1959- ) is a full-time Irish artist. A native of West Cork, she graduated from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, with First Class Honors. She now lives and paints with Swiss-born teacher Alex Streuli from her studio in Ballylibert, Castlefreke, West Cork, Ireland. She holds a Certificate in Start Your Own Business Course (1981-1982) from the Crafts Council of Ireland. Geraldine runs her studio from her home, gardens and outbuildings restored by her and Alex. She's exhibited since 2004.
Surf Breaking, Cranberry Island
Allen Tucker (1866-1939), American
Oil on canvas, 34" x 25" (w x h), 1913
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
Allen Tucker (1866-1939) graduated from the School of Mines of Columbia University in 1887 with a degree in architecture and worked as a draftsman. In 1908, he exhibited with Robert Henri, George Luks, George Bellows and others, contemporary with The Eight. He was often called "the American Van Gogh." His closest friend, critic Forbes Watson, described him as "brilliantly communicative, passionately in love with art in all its forms, with an ear for music, an eye for painting . . . genial and provocative in talk." He was known for his landscapes. Tucker exhibited his work with a New York group called the Independents, who wanted to shake up the conservative ideas of the National Academy of Design. He was also a founding member of the Association of American Painters and Sculptors, which staged the famous Armory Show of modern art in 1913.
Opening
Philip Frey (1967- ), American
Oil on linen panel, 12" x 9" (w x h)Philip Frey (1967- ), American
$1,400
Edgewater Gallery, Middlebury, VT
Born in Portland in 1967, Frey believes his first experience of the Maine coast was on one of many summer trips from New Bedford, Mass., before his family moved back to the state in 1980. "I remember the water being quite cold compared to Massachusetts and our focus was mostly on playing in and around the water." After graduating from Ellsworth High School, Frey pursued art studies at the Columbus (Ohio) College of Art and Design and then Syracuse University where he earned a BFA in 1990. He recalls working on some landscape pieces, including paintings and photomontages and collages. But it wasn't until he settled in Maine that he focused his attention on rendering the Maine world around him.
Rocks, Lichen and Grasses, North End, Iona (Island)
Chris Bushe (1958- ) RSW, Scottish
Oil on linen, 29" x 23" (w x h),
For sale £3,000 / $9,300 USD, Prentice & Hall, London
Born in Perthshire, Chris Bushe (1958- ) is a Scottish landscape painter. Chris studied at Grays School of Art, Aberdeen, Scotland, 1980-84, graduating with a B.A. in Fine Art, honors. Chris has shown his art in many solo and group exhibitions throughout Scotland and the UK, mainly in London. He also shows his work regularly at the RSW, RSA and Aberdeen Artists exhibitions. Chris began painting the west coast of Scotland more recently, he and his family visiting the islands regularly three or four times a year where he's inspired by the light, atmosphere and feeling of remoteness. "My paintings ebb and flow, more and less abstract, it's an almost subconscious decision which seems to depend on where I'm painting."
South Gorge, Appledore, Isles of Shoals
Childe Hassam (1859-1935), American
Oil on canvas, 20" x 24" (w x h), 1912
The Newark Museum of Art, Newark, NJ
Frederick Childe Hassam (1859-1935) was an American Impressionist painter, noted for his urban and coastal scenes. He produced over 3,000 paintings, oils, watercolors, etchings, and lithographs over the course of his career. This noted American impressionist of the early 1900s, spent three decades between 1886 and 1916 exploring Appledore Island. Six miles off the coasts of New Hampshire and Maine, Appledore is the largest island in the Atlantic archipelago, the Isles of Shoals. Island owner Celia Thaxter, made the island famous as an artist and literary colony, including her friend Childe Hassam. It was Celia's suggestion to Hassam to drop his first name Frederick and simply use Charles. This painting, despite its title referencing the South Gorge, actually pictures the north gorge on Appledore, a gorge that intersects another gorge, and cavernous at low tide. Hassam's frequent takes on gorges evolved over three decades, from illustrative in the 1880s, to far more experimental by 1912, the year painted this oil. Hassam set the scene against a high horizon line, hinting at the disorienting and powerful impact of the incessant tidal flows.
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