By SUSAN LYDON
Staff Writer
 

"Notations of Color: Oil Sketching in Maine", a special two month exhibit of landscape painting, will be on display in the Bates College Museum of Art from August 28th to October 30th. The exhibit features small-scale oil sketches by more than 40 American landscape painters of the late 19th and 20th centuries. These artists include George Bellows, Robert Henri, Neil Welliver, Joel Babb, Ann Lofquist and Lewiston-native Marsden Hartley.

The exhibit concerns the beginning oil studies of Maine's landscapes and follows their development to the present. This collection is, for the most part, true oil sketches - informal, rapidly executed studies painted in the open air. The remainder of the collection is small, finished paintings completed indoors. The artists' having worked outdoors is evidenced both in the immediacy and freshness of their paintings and in the realism of their technique. The small scale oil studies informally record light and color found in nature. When Marsden Hartley wrote his niece about painting at Kesar Lake, Maine in July 1910, he described his little painting of a sunset as "a notation merely of colors". "Notations of Color: Oil Sketching in Maine" is borrowed from Hartley's phrase.

Offering dramatic vistas and transient lighting, Maine has always been a favorite place for artists to paint outdoors. "For more than a century, Maine has been one of the favorite places where American artists have gravitated to paint directly from nature," commented Genetta McLean, director of the Bates College Museum of Art and curator of the exhibit. "This exhibition shows how artists have looked intently at Maine's landscape in an attempt to understand light, color, atmosphere and a sense of place." Working along the coast, painting Mount Desert Island and moving inland to study the vistas of Mount Katahdin and the Kennebec River, artists have had varying imaginative responses to the landscape of Maine.

From American impressionists like Willard Metcalf or Charles Woodbury to modernists like Marsden Hartley or George Hallowell, the artists have many different styles. The originality of each artist is evoked by different aspects of Maine's outdoors. Thomas Cornell's Harpswell Causeway depicts cottages huddled together overlooking a rocky coast. In Fred Bauer's The Wormser's Garden, thick brush strokes form vivid purple flowers against the intense green of the rest of the garden. Tranquil bays are featured in Helen St.Claire's works, while simple rustic houses adorn the canvases of Joel Barb. Pat Hardy portrays peaceful sandy inlets. Neil Welliver's subject is sleepy morning light penetrating a murky brown-green forest. These artistic personal responses to nature are on display now for the enjoyment of all who wish to see them.

In addition to works from the Bates College Museum of Art's collection, the exhibit has works from other public and private collections including the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, the Colby College Musuem of Art, the Farnsworth Art Museum, the Ogunquit Museum of American Art and the Portland Museum of Art.

The public is invited to enjoy this exhibition free of charge. Special Saturday parent-child landscape painting workshops will be held during the course of the exhibtion. The Museum of Art is opened Tuesday through Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm. Schools and other groups are welcomed by appointment. For more information or to schedule a group tour, call (207) 786-6158.