Blog

OMAA Online: ARTifacts – Charles Woodbury: Open Studio #1

June 8, 2020

If you’ve been following our ARTifacts Series, you may recall an earlier post sharing our behind-the-scenes preview of OMAA’s re-creation of Charles Woodbury’s Perkins Cove studio. Today, as part of OMAA Online, Curator and Collections Manager Ruth Greene-McNally and Preparator Larry Hayden provide a progress update as they install original artifacts on loan to the museum for the upcoming exhibition, “Charles Woodbury: Open Studio.” OMAA is grateful to exhibition sponsors Elizabeth Cutler & Joanna Manikas and the Maine Bicentennial Commission for their support. Stay tuned for updates on the completed project and be sure to share your questions and thoughts in the comment line!

OMAA Online: ARTifacts Kathleen Speranza Vanitas Vita

May 28, 2020

Welcome back to OMAA Online and our ARTifacts Series. Today’s behind-the-scenes tour explores the connection between 17th- century Dutch vanitas paintings and the still life florals of contemporary artist Kathleen Speranza. Enjoy this curator-led, installation preview and be sure to share your questions and thoughts in the comment line. “Vanitas Vita: Kathleen Speranza” opens to the public on July 1st along with “Light Southerly: Henry Strater in Verde Valley“; The View from Narrow Cove”; “Charles Woodbury: Open Studio” ;“Nocturne: Emily Nelligan” and “After Party: Andy Rosen.”

Charles Demuth and William Carlos Williams Figure 5

May 26, 2020

A major advocate of cubist-influenced Precisionism, Charles Demuth’s celebrated industrial landscapes established his career as a Modernist. Yet Demuth achieved equal regard for his poetic still-life florals, primarily painted in watercolor. Most of Demuth’s florals were created at his Lancaster, Pennsylvania home from gardens tended by the artist and his mother. The still lifes represent the peak of his career between 1915-1920.

OMAA Online: ARTifacts – Light Southerly Crossword Puzzle

May 21, 2020

Welcome to OMAA Online! Today, as part of our ARTifacts Series, OMAA Online is sharing a curator-led crossword game suitable for younger viewers and art lovers alike. We hope you will join us as we continue to share gallery tours, works of art, themed stories from the collection, and behind-the-scenes tours of exhibition installation.

Frances Kent Lamont

May 20, 2020

On your next visit to OMAA, you'll see Frances Kent Lamont's "Bird Afloat" prominently displayed on a pedestal as you round the corner into the gallery. Several works currently on view, including "Bird Afloat," were exhibited in the Initial Exhibition of 1953 at the opening of the Museum of Art of Ogunquit.

Who You Know and Where You Go

May 14, 2020

Romare Bearden is noted for his paintings and collages specific to the African American experience. His imagery frequently references the “great migration” of Black American citizens from the South to the North, themes that prompted Downtown Gallery director Edith Halpert to represent greater numbers of Black artists in a series of exhibitions in New York between 1930-1950.

How Far Can You Sea?

April 21, 2020

From wherever you are standing, how far can you see? I will re-phrase the question: how far can you sea? Within OMAA's exhibition, "The View from Narrow Cove" installation, you are never at a loss for a view of the sea and horizon.

"The View from Narrow Cove" Small Selections

April 20, 2020

Since it's Monday, let's start off small. You can see just how small these works of art are by comparison to other works within the salon style grouping in "The View from Narrow Cove."

Two Views

April 15, 2020

Every story benefits by irony as much as it does by transition, plot, character, setting, etc and there's more than enough literary elements at play for a good story associated with Narrow Cove and Perkins Cove.

Progression of Woodbury's Studio

April 14, 2020

Woodbury said to his students, "Our studios are shops, and an exhibition is a show. This might be only another phase if the painters were not definitely a part of the times. We belong to reconstruction and that means that we build on the failures and successes of the past."