On First Friday, July 5, from 5 to 7 pm, Gleason Fine Art in Boothbay will host an artist reception for the gallery’s July show: “Kevin Beers: Points of Light II.” The gallery invites Kevin’s many fans as well as the public to stop by Gleason Fine Art, have a glass of beer or wine, and chat with Kevin, one of the gallery’s most engaging artists. The show runs from now through July 30.
In art school, Kevin Beers was constantly urged by his professors to give up the representational style of painting he favored and to take up abstraction, which was all the rage at the time. Luckily, Beers, who was clearly in possession of great talent, continued to listen to his own muses, realists Edward Hopper, Rockwell Kent, and George Bellows.
When Beers discovered Maine and Monhegan Island, as had Hopper, Kent, and so many other artists before him, Beers was stunned by the quality of Maine’s light, the way it bounces off surfaces, creating sharp shadows and brilliant colors. And the landscape itself–sun dazzled white buildings, craggy headlands topped by lighthouses, and intense blue skies and waters–all spoke to Beers as no other place had.
Every summer after, Beers would pack up his car, leave Brooklyn behind, and head to Monhegan Island for five months. Until 2014, that is, when Beers and his wife Amy moved to Maine full-time, settling into a big, white 19th-century sea captain’s house in the mid-coast village of Thomaston.
In “Points of Light II,” Beers delights us with the joy he has found living in Maine, painting the rugged beauty of Maine’s coast. This year he has given the gallery over two dozen new oils, including paintings of Cozy Harbor on Southport Island, Burnt Island Lighthouse, Port Clyde, and Pemaquid, and of course his beloved Monhegan Island.
“Kevin Beers: Points of Light II,” runs through July 30, with a reception for Kevin on First Friday, July 5, from 5 to 7 pm. Gleason Fine Art is located at 31 Townsend Avenue in Boothbay Harbor. Summer gallery hours are: Monday through Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm, and Sunday, 11 am to 4 pm, and selected evenings. To view Kevin Beers’s new show, as well as the gallery’s extensive inventory of contemporary and estate art, visit www. gleasonfineart.com; call us at 207-633-6849; or email us at info@gleasonfine art.com.
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