Courthouse Gallery Fine Art is pleased to host the Book Launch for William Irvine: At Home (Marshall Wilkes), a new book highlighting a collection of Irvine’s small white house narrative paintings. The Book Launch will take place on Wednesday, July 25, from 4pm–6:30pm. The event will be held in conjunction with a solo show of Irvine’s new work that runs through August 12. The event is free and open to the public.

 At 5pm, Mr. Irvine and several writers, who wrote poems for the book, will read from the book. Guest writers include Carl Little, Elizabeth Rees, and Dindy Royster. Renown classical guitarist Scott Borg will begin the program with a performance.

 Courthouse Gallery is located at 6 Court Street in Ellsworth. To reserve book, please call (207) 667-6611, or visit www.courthousegallery.com. For more information on the book William Irvine: At Home, please see visit marshallwilkes.com.

 William Irvine: At Home highlights a unique collection of William Irvine’s small white house paintings. These delightful narrative paintings capture the grace and delight of daily activities—women celebrating spring with forsythia, calling in their cats at dusk, gossiping, planting trees, and sunbathing sans clothing. Men sip their morning coffee, repair windows, gather fishing gear and wait for the fog to lift. Mermaids, sheep, and sleeping sailors populate rugged, elemental scenes. And always, soaring overhead in the seascapes for which Irvine is best known, are the gulls, whose cries and calculated stillness captivate the painter. 

 The book features poems or excerpts by Irvine and several writers, including William Carpenter, Deborah Joy Corey, Carl Little, Elizabeth Rees, Dindy Rosyter, and John Tagliabue.

 Irvine moved to Maine in 1968, and was immediately drawn to the fishing villages of Corea and Jonesport, whose tidy houses reminded him of the white farms dotting the green hills of Scotland, where he grew up. Irvine eventually settled in Blue Hill, Maine, where he maintained a studio for forty years. He now lives in Brookline, Maine, with his wife, Margery, and their Shetland sheepdog, Tam O’ Shanter.     William Irvine: At Home joins William Irvine: A Painter’s Journey in establishing Irvine as a Maine and American master.

 Scott Borg Classical Guitarist

Australian classical guitarist and Augustine Artist, Scott Borg performs extensively as a soloist and chamber musician, and is known for his colorful, refined, and daring performances. He has been awarded numerous international scholarships and prizes, including the Australian Music Examinations Board highest honor and the Fellowship in Music Australia (F.Mus.A). He has performed at the Festival Internacional de Guitarra Mérida (Mexico), ICPNA Guitar Festival (Peru), the Shell Darwin International Festival (Australia), New York’s Apollo Theatre and Alice Tully Hall in the Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, and Ateneo de Madrid. In 2006, he was invited to perform for President Hu Jintao, Peoples Republic of China, at his internationally televised address to the United States of America. Mr. Borg received his Artist Diploma (Yale University), Masters of Music (The Juilliard School), and a Bachelor of Creative Arts with First Class Honours (University of Wollongong). His mentors include Sharon Isbin, Benjamin Verdery, Gregory Pikler, and Christopher Keane. 

 Borg is the director of the Baltimore Classical Guitar Society Orchestra, and was previously director of the Boston Guitar Orchestra (2009–2016). He is currently on faculty at Montgomery College in Rockville, Maryland, and is Artistic Director of the Mid-Maryland Guitar Festival.