Thomas Connolly
July 7 - July 30, 2022
Artist Talk, Wednesday, July 20 at 6pm
Thomas Connolly is a realist painter known for his architectural paintings of Portland, New York City and beyond. His work conveys a strong sense of place and atmosphere through subtle use of color, adding a richness to the subjects he chooses to paint.
Connolly participated in the Maine College of Art Baie Ste. Marie residency program in New Edinburgh, Nova Scotia. He was juried in to the 2011 Portland Museum of Art Biennial Exhibition, and the 2010 Center for Maine Contemporary Art Biennial Exhibition. He is the recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant and the Sheldon Bergh Award.
Looking at my paintings from the past thirty years, they fall into a few categories: Landscape, Interior of Still Life, and Cityscape. Regardless of what I depict, painting is a reason to toy around with colors. Of course, there is also an emotional connection to the content of the paintings. The smallish landscape pieces are painted on site, using my truck tailgate as a table top. There is a spot that I return to that overlooks the Spurwink Marsh. The foliage changes slowly, but the sky is very different day to day. I love this brief conversation with my view. The interiors are mostly painted during the winter months when it is nice to be inside. Perhaps not surprisingly then, my cityscapes convey that feeling of exterior cold and interior warmth. - Thomas Connolly
