Lobster Boats Off Monhegan by Kevin Beers | 36″ x 36″ | Oil on Canvas
We haven’t been to Maine in a number of years, but my husband and I visited for many years. Made some great friends who we would meet on the island each year. Kevin was one of those friends, he was always on the island painting away. You might know him as the artist that carried large canvases and set his easel up at the same time each day to capture everything he needed to complete his masterpiece. Monhegan Island is a special place with special people.
Manana from the Barnacle by Kevin Beers 13 x 40″ Oil
GO BIG OR GO HOME… that reminds me of Kevin Beers… you rarely see him paint something small, he’s the guy you see on Monhegan Island carrying a large canvas and a large easel… he’s the guy that knows everyone and is having the time of his life. It shows in his paintings. They are spectacular, and they reflect what he see’s in such a wonderful way. This truly looks like Manana from the Barnacle (neat little store/eatery near the wharf). Looking at this painting makes me feel like I’m there! Hey, where’s my sunscreen?!
Well, if you are in the Boothbay, Maine area, you’re in luck! Gleason Fine Art is having a show for him – it runs June 19 – July 26, 2014 with a opening reception date, Friday, June 27, 2014 from 5-7PM.
Each summer, Brooklyn resident Kevin Beers returns to the rock-bound island of Monhegan to paint for five months. Monhegan has come to mean a lot to Beers. It is where Beers transformed a passion for painting into his life’s work. It is also where Beers met his wife, Amy Raye, who, in a scene right out of a Hepburn and Tracy romantic comedy, literally ran into Beers while admiring a magazine article about Beers painting on Monhegan. Fittingly, Beers and Raye married on their island a couple summers after their serendipitous meeting.
To his many collectors, a Kevin Beers painting represents everything they love about Maine: intense blue seas and skies, puffy white clouds, and sunlight dancing off neat clapboard houses. To Beers himself, “Monhegan is a dazzling place with incredible, beautiful light. I love to paint the buildings on the island—the color and structure of weathered buildings, the patterns of sunlight and shadow, and the sharp contrast between a red roof, white clapboards, and bright blue sky.”
You can spot a piece of Henry Isaacs work a long distance away. With all the fabulous artists in the world its pretty cool when an artist develops a style that’s quite different and recognizable. Henry has done just that! Isn’t this piece wonderful? Henry has an amazing website, take the time to check it out!
Gleason Fine Art has an opening reception this evening from 5-8PM featuring Henry’s new work. If you’re in the Portland, Maine area stop in and check it out. If you’re no where near Portland… check it out via their website! Henry Isaacs exhibit runs through November 30, 2013, catch it if you can! This is going to be an amazing show!
Cranberry Island artist Henry Isaacs paints with energy, passion, and self-assurance. His style—broken brushwork and a palette of delicate blues, greens, pinks, and yellows—marks him as one of the most recognizable artists painting in Maine today. In person, Isaacs is as engaging an individual as you will ever meet. He is both worldly and down to earth, both witty and self-effacing, generous with his time, and passionate about the dangers of the art world’s becoming overly commercialized.
Isaacs and his wife Donna live in the village of Islesford on Little Cranberry Island, a small island located near the larger island of Mount Desert. But island living in no way inhibits Isaacs from going wherever he’s asked to paint. Recently, this was a commission to paint on the grounds of a large Namibian estate in southern Africa. “New Work” is Isaacs’ first one-person show in Portland, and for this special occasion, he has presented the gallery with nearly 20 paintings, some of very large in scale.
Isaacs has had a varied and impressive education, including the Slade School of Art in London, the Rhode Island School of Design, and the Putney School in Vermont. Isaacs’ teaching career is even more impressive and varied, with stints teaching anatomical drawing at Dartmouth, drawing and painting at the Massachusetts College of Art, and drawing at several European colleges.
Freelance writer, and Portland Newspapers arts reviewer, Dan Kany uses high praise to describe Isaacs’ technique: “Isaacs’ approach to color is based in balancing warm and cool tones. He does this brilliantly with his ubiquitous whites and neutrals, and with his brighter colors as well. Like the French Impressionists, he doesn’t use black. [Isaacs’] handling of paint owes an unapologetic debt to the chunky boldness of the early 20thcentury Modernists and Fauves. The brushwork is strong, but primarily dedicated to the job of pushing paint around the canvas—an activity Isaacs clearly enjoys.”
“Henry Isaacs: New Work” opens October 4 and runs through November 30. Please join us Friday, October 4, from 5 to 8 pm to meet Henry Isaacs. For more information, call the gallery at 207-699-5599, email us at info@gleasonfineart.com, or check out our website gleasonfineart.com. Gleason Fine Art, Portland, is located at 545 Congress Street. Gallery hours are Wednesday – Friday, 11 am–6 pm; Saturday, 11 am–5 pm.
I normally post the artists I feature on Monday, Wednesday and Friday… Occasionally I need to rearrange my schedule so I can let you know about an upcoming event… this would be one of those times. Kevin Beers… a cool guy that Fred and I met on our first visit to Monhegan Island, Maine. There he was set up with his big easel, painting on this huge canvas. What artist does Kevin’s paintings remind you of? If you said Edward Hopper we’re on the same wavelength. Amazing work. His love for Monhegan truly shows through in his paintings! Kevin shows his work at Gleason Fine Art Gallery in Boothbay Harbor – if you’re in the area stop in!
KEVIN BEERS
JUNE 28 – JULY 28, 2012
RECEPTION: SATURDAY, JUNE 30, FROM 5 TO 7PM
I’ve included a few of his new paintings… let me tell you how difficult it was to choose only two! If you aren’t in Boothbay Harbor, check out the gallery website! Hey, if you make it to the show please tell him (and his wife Amy!) that Fred and I said HELLO!
Each summer Brooklyn resident Kevin Beers returns to his beloved Monhegan Island to paint for 4 months, mining a fresh treasure trove of subject matter from this tiny island off the coast of Maine. Beginning in 2009, Beers has also been making annual trips to Monhegan in winter in order to capture the islands special light in snow.
“Monhegan is a dazzling place with incredible, beautiful light. It is such a remote and untouched island. I love to paint the buildings on the island–the color and structure of weathered buildings, the patterns of sunlight and shadow, and the sharp contrast between a red roof, white clapboards, and bright blue sky,” says Beers.
Kevin Beers has received increasing attention for his work, including features in Maine Home + Design, DownEast, American Art Collector, and American Artist. Avid collector, actor Remak Ramsay, says of Beers: “Unlike so many contemporary artists, Kevin Beers is well trained in the basics. Combine that with a genuine affection for the people and places he paints and his love of slanting light, and you get a rare magic that, eschewing trendy gimmicks, is as honest and sincere as it is beautiful.”
Daniel Kany, arts reviewer for the Portland Newspapers, writes of Beers: “Kevin Beers respect for Hopper is apparent, but he quickly takes his quiet volumes and glowing tonality away from Hoppers slow, cooled lines. Beers brushwork flows at a strong pace that never hurries or abandons thoughtfulness. The masterful bow to Hopper is worth applauding–especially when a closer inspection reveals Beers flowing brushwork is nothing like Hoppers.”
I love to introduce artists that you might not run across… good ones, artists that are unique… I would like you to meet Maine artist, Tom Curry. This is a fabulous pastel on paper entitled BOAT HOUSE, I love the orange undertones, its a very striking piece! It’s at Gleason Fine Art in Boothbay Harbor, Maine. If you’re in the area, check him out! If not, check out Gleason’s website, he’s under the CONTEMPORARY ART section. The artist also has a FABULOUS website, (click HERE)… so check him out! Here’s a blip from his website (the Artists Statement):
Life on the Maine coast is charged with a brilliance, a wildness. The waters are a living green ecosystem, radiating wonder. There’s an urgency to my work because so many of these places are being lost to development.
Nature, ever changing, offers countless compositions. I want to evoke a place, time and atmosphere in my work. The natural world is my big studio, filled with opportunities to observe nature and explore its seamless miracle. Open air painting is a selection process: this sky, these waves, this foreground. It’s not a fragment, but a series of experiences not limited to space and time like a photograph. Many places feel sacred to me, places where the landscape evokes a sense of stewardship and reverence.
I have worked with pastel more than 20 years. The medium’s fluidity and immediacy allow me to capture the ever changing light, water, and atmosphere. I often return to work in the same locations with infinite daily results.
Many artists influence my work: Ferdinand Hodler, Wolf Kahn, Marsden Hartley, Tom Thompson and Rockwell Kent. I also find inspiration in Jean Baptiste-Camille Corot’s paintings of the Italian countryside, as well in the work of Edgar Degas, Fairfield Porter, Edward Hopper and Rockwell Kent.
Now this is an artist that makes a statement! You can recognize her paintings quickly… no guessing if it’s Andrea Petersor not! Andrea has her work at Gleason Fine Artin Boothbay Harbor, Maine. If you’re in the area, stop by, say hello and check out her work… while there also check out Kevin Beers, I’ve mentioned him before, but he’s worth mentioning again!
Here’s a blip from Gleason’s website…
With her bold, brushy landscapes, Andrea Peters is one of Gleason Fine Arts most recognizable artists. She is a keen observer of the landscape around her. From her cove in East Boothbay, Maine, she paints the views surrounding her home in each season: her flower garden, the shores edge, waterfalls, and blueberry fields. Her paintings are composed for maximum expression. “I push beyond the obvious,” Peters says, and in doing so she creates a seismic shift in the way we see the landscape. The result is a visual extravaganza. To see more, click HERE.
Our first trip to Monhegan was in 2006, we were having dinner one evening at the Island Inn and in walked Kevin Beers, it was his birthday and there was a group gathering for a celebratory dinner. We had seen Kevin paint all over Monhegan, he’s hard to miss. He’s just about the only one carrying a large canvas. He appears in the same location at the same time of day and turns out painting after painting of Monhegan. Of course he paints more than Monhegan, this guy CAN PAINT A TRUCK (among other things)! Kevin is a nice guy and a great artist, if you haven’t seen Kevin’s work, check it out, he’s at Gleason Fine Art, he’s also got his own website with links. Take a peek!
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