The Colby College Museum of Art will present “Lois Dodd: Cultivating Vision,” an exhibition that brings together nearly 50 drawings, watercolors and prints, spanning four decades, given by the artist to the Colby College Museum of Art in 2010. These works on paper are paired with a selection of early paintings from the 1950s and 1960s and shed light on drawing as both an ancillary and autonomous part of her artistic practice.

“Lois Dodd: Cultivating Vision” is curated by the Colby Museum’s Anne Lunder Leland Curatorial Fellow Ramey Mize.

Growing up in the Tri-State area, Dodd was influenced both by her studies at Cooper Union in New York City and by her summers spent on Penobscot Bay on Maine’s mid-coast. The themes she represents are often specific to her location, such as Maine landscapes peppered with old farmhouses, gardens and verdant fields, or glimpses of buildings and cityscapes through windows.

Colby College Museum of Art is located at 5600 Mayflower Hill in Waterville. Museum hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. Open on Thursdays until 9 p.m. during the academic year. Admission is free.

Founded in 1959, the Colby College Museum of Art comprises five wings, more than 8,000 works of art, and more than 38,000 square feet of exhibition space, making it the largest art museum in the state of Maine. The museum is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums and was recently named the best free art museum in Maine by Yankee magazine.

Major works by American masters form the core of the historical collection and include works by John Singleton Copley, Gilbert Stuart, Albert Bierstadt, Winslow Homer, Mary Cassatt, and William Merritt Chase, along with significant holdings of American folk art. The modern movement collection is represented by artists including John Marin, Marsden Hartley, Georgia O’Keeffe, George Bellows, and Rockwell Kent; contemporary American art, includes works by Chuck Close, Agnes Martin, Sol LeWitt, Dan Flavin, Kara Walker, Elizabeth Murray, Alex Katz, Richard Serra, Maya Lin, and Terry Winters. Other principal areas of the collection include Greek and Roman antiquities, European prints and drawings and early Chinese art.