Local Color: Painting the Coast of Maine

George Bellows, Evening Swell, 1911, oil on canvas, Courtesy of Art Bridges Foundation

Generations of artists have flocked to the Maine coast.

These artists strive to represent a distinct character of Maine: the untamed beauty of its coastline and the quaint charm of its communities.

Most prominent among them are members of the Monhegan Schoool, a century-old artists’ colony inspired by the rugged coastline and fishing community on Monhegan Island. Artists like George Bellows, Rockwell Kent, and Andrew Wyeth have found inspiration in the cliffs, people, and seaside light of this small offshore island.

This exhibit features work from:

George Wesley Bellows (1882–1925) first became well-known for painting urban scenes of New York’s working class. After his teacher, Robert Henri, and fellow artist, Rockwell Kent, exposed Bellows to Monhegan Island in 1911, he spent the next several summers on the island. His Monhegan compositions reflect the coast and the people that he observed during his time there.

Evening Swell is a prime example of Bellows’s ability to communicate the energy of both a place and its inhabitants. The dark, rugged coastline feels immense compared to the individuals at work. Yet in proper Maine-fisherman fashion, they appear perfectly at home beneath the towering cliffs, the rising swell, and the coming night.

Jay Hall Connaway (1893–1970) also started in New York, but was fixated on the Maine coast. Seeking “to paint the lonely sea,” Connaway spent the early 1920s as a hermit on a deserted island Downeast, where he built a shack for shelter and hunted for food. He later served as a cook for a lumber camp, worked dories with an offshore fishing fleet, and enlisted in the Coast Guard, all in service of funding his passion for painting and studying the sea. Eventually he found himself on Monhegan Island, where he started the Connaway Art School.

Connaway’s relationship with the Maine coast shines through in his work. His loose yet muscular brushwork expresses the energy of the surf, capturing the stoic beauty of rock, sea, and sky.

This exhibit is made possible with support from Art Bridges Foundation and Katherine M. Harding.