John Marin show in Portland

The John Marin show at the Portland Museum of Art was well worth the 2 hour drive from New Harbor to get there. The exhibition included both watercolors and oil paintings. (About 50 paintings, I believe).
In either media his brilliant ability to abstract the complex realities of nature is unfailing.
There are those who prefer his watercolors to his oils but in either case his response to the medium is consistant in that he allows the material to be what it is and at the same time take on the unique abstract charateristics of actual events in front of him.
Also unfailing is the "Rightness" of the compositions.
Marin's reputation as one of the most significant modern American painters of his era is made clear once again in this exhibition.  If you love visual poetry on the highest level, see this show. (June 22 - October 10).

John Marin, Landscape Forms, Delaware County, PA,  1916 

 

 

Head of John Marin by Gaston LaChaise 

 

Lois Dodd show at the Caldbeck Gallery

An exhibition of small paintings by Lois Dodd is at the Caldbeck Gallery in Rockland.  (July 20 - August 13)

I was in a grumpy mood before entering the Gallery last Thursday.  After a few minutes in Dodd's show, the pleasure of being in the company of these strong yet charming paintings lifted my spirits as though I had entered a fine museum.  What a wonderful ability she has to dicern the really urgent things going on in front of her.  And what a fine dexterity to be able to shape so concisely and accurately.  One might also say her retinal dexterity is exeptional since her color can be both natural and risky depending on what slice of life she's telling us about.  A mature master painter in the midst of you in Mid-Coast Maine right now.  Don't miss this show.

 

Lois Dodd, Bee Approaching Touch Me Not
2006, oil on panel 13 x 20 inches