The annual Haiti Benefit Dinner traditionally offers participants the opportunity to purchase Haitian paintings and handicrafts.

“This year,” dinner co-founders Susan and Frazier Meade said, “the final act of the evening will be a live auction of the accompanying painting, “Market by Boat,” by Haitian artist Amerlin Delinois.”

Delinois is a well known if still relatively undiscovered naive painter who creates wonderful tableaux of Haitian rural and village life and his hopeful and nostalgic paintings are a good antidote to the natural disasters and systemic instability which are Haiti’s unfortunate reality. Amerlin Delinois was born in Les Cayes, in the far south west of Haiti on May 24, 1958. His father was a farmer and his mother sold merchandise in the local market. At age 18, he moved to Port-au-Prince to apprentice to an auto mechanic, eventually rising to a highly skilled level as shop foreman. During this time he began to paint. At some point, he also became a truck driver in the department of public works. He maintained both careers until 1991 when he decided to devote all his time to painting. He has seven children and lives in Port-au-Prince.

In the earthquake of 2010, the Delinois house in Port au Prince was partially destroyed. Among other young and upcoming artists seriously affected by the earthquake, Delinois was chosen by the Monnin Foundation to receive grants to rebuild his house.

The Monnin gallery in Port-au-Prince continues to represent and promote the art of Amerlin Delinois which has been exhibited in recent years, in addition to the U.S. and Haiti, in France Switzerland, the U.K. and elsewhere.

Delinois’ “Market by Boat” is 12” x 16” and beautifully framed by Alan Baldwin of Art Sake. It will be on exhibit at Skidompha library beginning Feb. 19.

The Haiti Dinner will be prepared by the Damariscotta River Grill and will take place March 1 at 6 p.m. at St Patrick’s Church in Newcastle. Tickets are $30 ($35 door) and are available at Sherman’s Book Shops (Damariscotta and Boothbay Harbor), Treat’s and Skidompha library.

For more information, to volunteer to help, or to make a donation, call Sharon Marchi, 529-5239.