An eclectic collection of more than 50 dazzling paint-by-numbers paintings goes on display in Wiscasset this week. Karin McDorr, owner of Mac's Place, is excited to include the exhibit as a new centerpiece for the 2014 season.

Curated and installed by Wiscasset artist and gallery owner John Sideli, the pieces in the show at Mac's Place have been carefully collected for their interesting subject matter, excellent level of execution and overall quality and condition. Most are in their original period frames which were often included in the kits.

Paint-by-number kits were invented, developed and marketed in 1950 by Max S. Klein, an engineer and owner of the Palmer Paint Company of Detroit, Mich., and Dan Robbins, a commercial artist. By the end of the following year, Palmer Paints’ Craft Master brand had sold more than 12 million kits. Each kit contained a board on which light blue or gray lines indicated areas to paint; each area was coded with a number and a corresponding numbered paint to use. Craft Master promised amateur artists “A beautiful oil painting the first time you try,” and “Every man a Rembrandt.” This do-it-yourself product proved so popular that over a dozen companies were producing there own versions in competition with Palmer Paint.

“Sixty years later, the paintings have become a window into American life in the ’50s,” Sideli explained. “They celebrated American history and family life, as well as our fascination with faraway places and idyllic gardens.”

Images of the quintessential covered bridge, autumn scene, coastal lighthouse, or Paris street scene were in abundance. The sets offered a rich array of subject matter ranging from simple kits of dogs or cats with five or six colors to more complicated advanced sets with up to 24 colors and depicting elaborate scenes. Even important images from the art history of the late 19th and early 20th centuries were offered up for at-home artists who could re-create their own versions of paintings by Van Gogh, Homer, Rembrandt and many others.

Original paint-by-number pieces are archived as part of the permanent part of the Smithsonian Museum of American History in an online Paint By Number Museum as part of the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art in New York at www.paintbynumbermuseum.com.

Even as paint-by-numbers art decorated homes throughout America, art purists dismissed them as amateur reproductions. And that discussion remains a point of debate.

“The paint-by-numbers hobby remains popular even today.” Sideli said, “And the collecting of vintage examples has really taken hold. Well-executed examples depicting unusual and attractive subject matter can fetch well into the hundreds of dollars. They have endured for decades as pop culture icons in their own right.”

Mac’s Place is located at 75 Main Street. Hours are 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily. For more information, call McDorr at 207-522-5263 or John Sideli at 207-882-6281.