the MAINE PLEIN AIR EXPERIENCE // Lois Dodd, David Little, John David O’Shaughnessy, Charles Thompson, Russel Whitten

On view August 13 - September 18, 2022
Reception August 13, 5-7pm

Curated by artist and educator Charles Thompson, The Maine Plein Air Experience presents five painters’ depictions of the Maine landscape. Each artist works on location and from observation, honestly and intuitively translating their surroundings through the ever-shifting filters of weather and light. 

Lois Dodd’s brilliantly straightforward depictions of her everyday surroundings have helped shape the genre of Maine landscape painting. An important figure in the postwar New York art scene, Dodd has painted her home and environs in midcoast Maine since she first began visiting the state in the 1950’s. Her work has been the subject of over fifty one-person exhibitions, including a retrospective at the Portland Museum of Art in 2013. She is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and is represented by Alexandre Gallery in New York. 

David Little has explored and painted the Maine landscape for over thirty years. His works home in on the state’s diverse terrains - cragged islands, rural orchards, blueberry barrens, and forested views of Mount Katahdin, among others. He studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and carries on the legacy of his uncle, abstract-expressionist painter William Kienbusch. Little has shown his work in galleries and museums across the northeast, and also works as an author and research historian. His first book, The Art of Katahdin, was published in 2013.

John David O’Shaughnessy paints seascapes from life in all shifts of weather. His paintings carry an intensity of movement inspired by the changing environments of water, tide, sky, and light. O’Shaughnessy studied at the Massachusetts College of Art and has developed his eye over the years through a career in design. He teaches at the Currier Museum of Art, the Farnsworth Art Museum, and exhibits throughout New England.

Charles Thompson works entirely from life, beginning and completing each painting on location. He responds to light, atmosphere, and form, in an effort to tease out the remarkable in our ordinary surroundings. Thompson has been a plein air painter for the last forty years and teaches art at the University of New England. His curatorial debut is structured around artists who work on location, and within the rich tradition of Maine landscape painting.

Russel Whitten captures quintessential views of Maine in masterful watercolor paintings. He is a student of the late Dewitt Hardy and studied at the Maine College of Art, Heartwood College of Art, and the Art Students League of New York. He has additional experience as a scenic painter, and has taught for nearly twenty years at art institutions throughout southern Maine.