‘Henry Isaacs: Paintings of New England and New York’ at Gleason Fine Art

“Henry Isaacs: Paintings of New England and New York” will be on view at Gleason Fine Art from June 30 to Aug. 2.

A reception will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. July 1, including a Gallery Conversation with the popular former Maine Today Media arts writer Bob Keyes and Henry Isaacs from 6 to 7 p.m. under the Gleason Gazebo. A catalog with an essay by Bob Keyes is available.

Isaacs’ early training as an artist was a rigorous one, spent primarily at the esteemed Slade School of Art in London, where he spent countless days studying and drawing the human form, followed by teaching in both England and Italy.

Isaacs’ return to the United States in the early 1980s was both exhilarating and challenging

“The color and landscape that I newly found in Maine freed me to shift away from the figurative painting and drawing of my training,” “he says.

In the four decades since, Isaacs has painted brilliantly colored landscapes with exuberance and energy. His joy in painting is transmitted to the canvas and thus to his devoted clientele.

Isaacs, 71, was born with the wandering spirit that satisfies the curious soul of the artist. He has traveled widely and often — to Africa, Europe, Central America, the Himalayas in Nepal, and nearly every state in the United States — making small studies as he went, which he later transformed into paintings. However, during the pandemic, Isaacs has stayed pretty close to his adopted home in the state of Vermont. When he began to travel again, Isaacs sought the kinds of human presence found in urban locations — Portland, Boston, Cambridge and New York. Thus emerged a new body of work, completed over the past two years in the streets and parks of New York and the banks of the Charles River, dotted with human forms eating, walking dogs and picnicking.

As with all of Isaacs’ series, this new work began with a commission. A client asked him for small paintings of her Park Slope neighborhood in Brooklyn. He suggested painting families playing and walking dogs. Isaacs soon ventured beyond Park Slope, completing one painting of a couple picnicking in Manhattan. These are loose figures, more the suggestion of human forms than identifiable people.

Another client wanted paintings from the Charles River. Isaacs followed the river from Boston to Newton, filling his paintings with people rowing, sailing, and jogging. “Rowers on the Charles River,” which shows five rowing shells headed toward one of Cambridge’s iconic bridges, is especially delightful.

While humans and their dogs are featured in many of Isaacs’ new paintings, sailboats are prominent in many others. Stunning depictions of Portland, Nantucket, Boston and Freeport harbors are alive with boats under sail. In these paintings, the skies are blue, the clouds are many, and the colors are bright — classic Henry Isaacs.

Learn more about the artist at henryisaacs.com.

Gleason Fine Art is at 31 Townsend Ave., Boothbay Harbor. Summer gallery hours are 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday. For more information, call Gleason Fine Art at 207-633-6849, email the gallery at [email protected], or go to www.gleasonfineart.com.