“A Year in the Gut” art show, consisting of 365 paintings of Townsend Gut as seen from the dock and studio of Southport artist Rick Dickinson, has opened at the Southport Memorial Library, 1032 Hendricks Hill Road. Each painting was completed on the appropriate date plein air and framed by the month as a calendar.

In the spirit of full disclosure, paintings were not completed in one calendar year. Several years were required to fill in all the dates as he and wife Pandora travel some and Dickinson has a studio in Lawrence, Massachusetts that he frequents in addition to his Southport studio. The show is about 365 paintings of the same subject, the same view, all the same size and yet all different, different times of day, different weather, different light effect.

Dickinson grew up in upstate New York, where he first painted as a teenager. He graduated college with a degree in engineering and enjoyed a successful career as an executive in the construction industry. He has had classical art training at the Paul Ingbretson Studio of Drawing and Painting, an atelier, also in Lawrence, in addition to limited study at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art and the Maine College of Art and individual study with Lois Griffel, Myron Barnstone, Don Stone, Don Demers, and others.

Dickinson continues his relationship with Ingbretson in his Lawrence studio working in what has become a painting style known as the Boston School. The Boston School style is an advanced form of impressionism, lower case “i” in that it strives to combine classic impressionism with thoroughly rendered form; and impressionism in that it is focused on capturing the essence of the subject, especially the effect of the light. It is the culmination of the development of artistic craftsmanship refined by the great masters of Europe over the centuries since the Renaissance and, more specifically, the amalgamation of the impressionists treatment and knowledge of color with fine rendering as practiced by the academics.

The Boston School style originated with the instructors from the Museum School at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Their work can be seen at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The group includes, among others, Frank W. Benson, William McGregor Paxton, Joseph Rodefer DeCamp, and Edmund C. Tarbell, the recognized leader of the group. These visionaries studied contemporaneously in European ateliers under one master. The study under one master defines the atelier style of training, as opposed to university training under several professors each with their own different technique. The style is now being taught by Ingbretson at his atelier who traces his lineage through his studies with RH Ives Gammel to William McGregor Paxton, himself a student of the great French master/teacher Jean-Leon Gerome.

It is said that the appeal of the craftsmanship of a Boston School painter is not solely dependent on interest in subjective significance. Its charm lies, primarily, in the beauty of interpretation, the observation and image captured by the painter. The compositions are thoughtful and well-balanced, the values perfectly related, textures exquisitely rendered, and the subject matter centered on beauty. There is no evidence of labor, and the brushwork is never sloven. Sunlight and atmosphere pervade the image which the artist paints, but the effect is not forced. In dealing with subtleties the painter does not resort to tricks or abstractions, so his pictures are understood and appreciated almost as well by the public as by his colleagues and critics. A Boston School masterpiece never needs explanation, it simply extrudes beauty that lights up a room while communicating poetry through the use of rich colors and finely contemplated brushwork while capturing the light effect. It needs to be about the light effect with full color, finely rendered without compromise.

The appeal to Dickinson is that his results never fully meet the objective. His truth is that he hopes the two never meet because then the learning could stop and the game may be over. In the words of Frank Benson, “The only fun in life is trying hard to do something you can’t quite accomplish.” Rick Dickinson would like to do just one good one..

The library is open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday with additional evening hours on Thursdays from 6-8 p.m. For more information, call  207-633-2741.

Rick’s work can also be seen at Gleason Fine Art in Boothbay Harbor and with prior appointment at his studios in Lawrence, Massachusetts and Southport. Contact the artist at 207-350-5772 or Rick@DickinsonArt.com.