Ed Douglas:
Recent Works
June 2 - July 2, 2022
Opening reception Thursday, June 2, 5-7pm
Most of the large paintings in this exhibition are of the “Anonymous Portrait (A.P.)” series begun some time ago. However, during these covid years, these subjects’ faces have been replaced by masks , which one viewer found upsetting, noting that there was no way to tell if the subject was happy or sad, and thus revealing their point of view in which the painting is regarded as a subject that relies on likeness and accuracy to something outside itself. On the other hand, one can see the painting as an object with certain qualities of invention, construction, and a skillful organization of elements. In the first case, where the painting doesn’t match the viewer’s mindset or their thinking the anonymity in the title means the painting lacks substance or clarity, dissatisfaction is understandable . If one sees “A.P. #21, Green with Envy” within the first category, then one might ask what’s causing the lady’s sickly complexion? Well it’s the yellow-blue environment, of course. To me, what drives the process are the structural choices offered within a particular color construct. - Ed Douglas
Born in 1935, Ed Douglas began his fine arts education at the Rhode Island School of Design earning a BFA in 1963. He earned an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, where he was influenced by Bay Area giant Richard Diebenkorn. From 1973 to 2000, Douglas taught drawing and painting at the Maine College of Art in Portland, Maine, and for most of his tenure there, he also served as Chair of the Art Department. Douglas has been a Visiting Professor at Washington University in St. Louis, as well as at the Art Academy of Cincinnati, Ohio, and the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada. In 2013, he was an invited guest lecturer and art critic at Colby College. Ed's work is included in the permanent collections of the Portland Museum of Art, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Dayton Art Museum, Dayton, Ohio, Lincoln Land Community College, Springfield, Illinois, the Cincinnati Art Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the Papendrecht Museum of Contemporary Art, Netherlands, as well as in private collections in the United States, Canada, Spain, Netherlands, and Greece. His work is known for it's palette of beautiful color combinations academically and thoughtfully laid to surface. He derives inspiration from classic Impressionist masterpieces. Douglas maintains a residence in Maine spending summers in Essex, New York.
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Michael Torlen
Going Deep: Monhegan Watercolors
My recent work encompasses many aspects of the sea—romantic, nostalgic, and dangerous. I have painted the ocean, in plein air on Monhegan Island during the summers for over three decades, attracted to Monhegan’s rich artistic history, sustainable lobster fishery, cultural community, and limits on land development.
For this work, I also draw upon my experiences aboard ship with my father, a Norwegian commercial fisherman, and as a crewmember on a commercial purse seine tuna boat. Beyond commercial fishing, life on earth too is contingent upon the sea—the origin of all life, sustaining and maintaining our endangered “water planet.”
Painting the sea in plein air is a nearly impossible project. Everything is in motion. When I return to the same place to paint, the appearances are different—tides, waves, lichens, clouds, skies, and light. Depending on the tides and motion of the water, even the rocks appear to change. I love the challenge because I must make it up. Why not take a photograph? A photograph captures only what the camera lens sees, not what the human eye sees. - Michael Torlen
Michael Torlen is a painter, printmaker, writer, and Professor Emeritus of the School of Art+Design at Purchase College, State University of New York, where he taught painting and drawing. He earned his BFA at Cranbrook Academy of Art and his MFA at Ohio State University.
Torlen has painted during annual trips to Monhegan for 25 years. His work appears in David Little and Carl Little’s book Art of Acadia and in Carl Little’s Paintings of Maine. Carl Little’s profile, “Michael Torlen: Tied to the Sea,” appeared in the July/August 2020 issue of Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors.
In Maine he has shown work at Archipelago Gallery, Bayview Gallery, Jonathan Frost Gallery, and Lupine Gallery on Monhegan Island. His work is in the collections of several museums as well as in corporate and private collections.
Torlen has published poetry, articles, essays, and art reviews and has written a book about painting, drawing, and perception, due out in 2023.He maintains a studio and lives in Westbrook, with his wife, author Eleanor Phillips Brackbill.
