The Damariscotta Office of Legacy Properties Sotheby’s International Realty is pleased to be hosting the work of well loved local artist John Lorence from Sept. 13 through Nov. 15. John has titled his show “Interpretations.” It will focus on a variety of his art interests over his many years in Maine.

Art has been John Lorence’s passion from an early age. As a child, he attended painting class on Saturday morning at the museum near his home. These kindled his urge to go to art school despite the wishes of his family for him to pursue a career in technology. Art school was interrupted by military service where he first served as an illustrator stationed in Orleans, France. That experience started adventures that were to take John from Paris to Beirut, Amman, Bagdad, Cairo, and beyond. Always, wherever he was, he painted and drew. As example, while traveling the Nile River, he worked for an archeological expedition that was excavating two forts they wished to save from rising waters caused by the Aswan Dam. His daily drawings “measured” what had been removed. In John’s words “Work in foreign countries has put a stamp on what inspired me in many ways….the landscape, the people, and their domestic activities.”

John first came to Maine in 1962 and has lived here permanently since 1969. Much of the 1970s and 1980s was spent at his home on Great Cranberry Island. There he became fascinated with the sailboats on Sommes Sound which led to his nautical series. His geologic series developed as he sat at various coastal sites from Bald Head Cliff in Ogunquit to Quoddy Head in Lubec and painted the rock formations. His Atlantic Tern series focuses on flight. During a trip to Brittany, France , he became enraptured with the orderliness of French agriculture and particularly the Border Trees that protected the grain or produce. As he says, once a theme developed for him, he found satisfaction in pursuing it for a period of time.

Please join us to enjoy many of these images produced during a long and rich life. The Open House for John will be on Friday, Sept. 13, from 5- 7 p.m. at our office located at 170 Main St. in Damariscotta. Light refreshments will be served. The show will also be open to the public weekdays during our regular office hours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.