Jeff Kowalski’s art work may be viewed from Aug. 28 though October in the Great Room of the Boothbay Harbor Memorial Library (BHML) during normal library hours.

Jeff grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma where his grandfather founded a commercial art studio. Visiting museums and taking art classes as a child honed his interest in art. After earning a PhD in Art History at Yale University in 1981, Jeff taught at Temple University and Northern Illinois University, where he headed the Art History Division from 1996 to 2004. A specialist in the art and architecture of ancient Mesoamerica and the Andes, he has authored numerous articles interpreting the visual culture of ancient Maya civilization. 

Along with his teaching and scholarship, from the 1980s to the present, Jeff has been painting regularly during summer visits to Maine, where he has exhibited and sold his work at the Boothbay Region Art Foundation Gallery and at the Maine Art Gallery in Wiscasset.

Speaking of his paintings, Jeff notes that his work, “Often deals with recognizable places where I have spent time, have personal memories and associations, or simply have visited and whose subject matter and mood captured my attention.”

While Jeff’s subject is generally representational, he has been inspired by artists such as Fairfield Porter and Wolf Kahn, and he enjoys simplifying or exaggerating aspects of form and color to create compositions that keep this imagery more visually effective and engaging.

The library, at 4 Oak St. in Boothbay Harbor, is open Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays 9:30 a.m. to  4:30 p.m. , Wednesdays 9:30 p.m. to 7 p.m., and Saturdays 10 a.m.  to 4 p.m. Masks required.