Gleason Fine Art in Boothbay Harbor opens two new shows on Aug. 31: Janice Anthony: ‘At One With Nature’ and Tom Curry: ‘New Work.’

The opening reception for both shows is First Friday, Sept. 1, from 5 to 7 p.m. Everyone is invited to join Janice and Tom in a glass of Monhegan Brewing beer or fine wine. The two shows run through Oct. 3.

Jackson resident Janice Anthony is on the short list of Maine's most respected and collected contemporary realist painters. A long-time member Tom Crotty's Frost-Gully Gallery in Freeport, Anthony joined the Gleason roster of artists upon Crotty's death two year's ago. The gallery welcomed Anthony's fresh and direct approach to painting the landscape.

Anthony's beautifully rendered landscapes of Maine invite viewers to see the natural world as she does. In her own words: "The content of my paintings lies beyond the visible features of woods, rocks, and water. My intention is to convey the sense of place: the moving air, the solidity of rock, the transience of water, and the strength of the ground beneath. The act of painting unites me with a wilderness that I recognize within myself. Putting paint on the canvas is where I find my bearings, at the intersection of the image and the brush" (O'Hern, "Am. Art Collector," 6/2012).

Janice Anthony lives in rural Jefferson, Maine, where she and her husband raise cattle. Anthony's resume is long and includes numerous solo and group shows at prestigious galleries. Her paintings hang in many public collections, including Unum, in Portland, Maine, and the McGraw-Hill Companies in New York City. Her paintings appear in many books and magazines, including the Little/Skolnick series, Paintings of Maine, Paintings of Maine in Winter, and Paintings of Maine Islands.

For her solo show “At One With Nature,” Anthony has given the gallery a dozen new paintings, including the ethereal "Threshold" (acrylic, 24 by 24 inches), which depicts a place and a moment in time so evocative that one is tempted to use the word "dreamlike."

Artist Tom Curry could live anywhere, but he and his wife, the writer Kim Ridley, chose the Down East village of Brooklin, Maine. Here Curry's singular passion focuses on the tiny, uninhabited island of Chatto, which sits in Blue Hill Bay, which Curry can see from his studio. Curry paints Chatto at all times of day and in all types of weather.

The show's centerpiece, a 48” by 57”  oil titled "Venus," is breathtaking. With "Venus," Curry conjures a spectacular summer day in Maine. Immense, puffy, white clouds float in the sky above Chatto and are reflected in the sea below, enveloping the lush, green island. The open sky is an unforgettable clear blue. The sun, threatening to break through the clouds, yellows their edges.

"Venus" is classic Tom Curry: take a simple thing, like a little, green pincushion of an island, and make it the center of the universe, a universe the viewer wants very much to be a part of.

When Curry can take his eyes off Chatto, Brooklin's serrated coastline and dozens of islands offer the artist an unlimited number of possibilities to paint. In "The Meadow," a delicately striped sky fills the top half of the painting. The lower half takes the viewer from the mainland to a wooded island, and then to the distant hills beyond. The striped sky plays against supercharged spring greens and the reds and oranges of newly leafed blueberry shrubs. The result is a stunning painting that lets the viewer know just how precious this bit of coastline is.

Both shows may be viewed on the gallery's website: gleasonfineart.com. For further information, call the gallery at 633-6849, or send an email to info@gleasonfineart.com. Gleason Fine Art, located at 31 Townsend Avenue in Boothbay Harbor, is open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.