NEW GALLERY CELEBRATING A UNIQUE VISION OF AMERICA

Contemporary Views of the American Landscape features approximately twenty paintings and photographs from several of the northeast’s most talented and promising artists, including two of greater Portland’s own. The artists shed light on a refreshing and optimistic view of the environment in which we live. Situated on a historic military base, the gallery and its artists exemplify an altogether American character.

Great Diamond Island functioned as an artist retreat during the 19th century. The island hosted such visitors as Harriet Beecher Stowe and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. During the Spanish American War, the military base Fort McKinley was built on the island, defending Casco Bay and the city of Portland from 1907 until the end of World War II. The gallery is located in a brick Colonial Revival building once used as a fire house for the military fort.

Today the island functions as a resort community that houses roughly 77 permanent residents. The old army barracks, famously called “200 man barracks” have been converted into condominiums. On the east side of the island concrete coastal artillery batteries still exist, but are technically on private property and generally off limits due to safety concerns.

Paul Brahms is a painter living and working on Peaks Island, Maine. Mr. Brahms provides an enlivened and unparalleled view of Maine life through beautiful paintings. His distinctive work celebrates how people and animals interact with their environment.

Craig Olsen is a painter living and working in Brooklyn, New York. He is an abstract painter who derives his images from the land. He creates acrylic paintings on shaped panels. He uses patterns, line, and color to convey a sense of growing skepticism of our contemporary habits and modes. Mr. Olsen writes regularly for The Brooklyn Rail, a nationally published art journal.

Patrick Shoemaker is an artist living and working in New Jersey. His energizing work offers a representation of the land of the northeastern United States that is still unscathed by the perils of modern man. He works on a variety of surfaces including canvas, wood panel, and plexi-glass.

Jeanne Wells is a photographer living and working in Portland, Maine. Ms. Wells uses the increasingly rare practice of printing photos using the traditional hands on processes of film emulsions and lithograph prints. Her work intimately conveys the serene beauty of America.