Gleason Fine Art’s new show, “Celebrating Winter: Paintings by Gallery artists” opens Thursday, Jan. 26 and run through March 4.

For some, winter is a dull time dominated by shades of gray and white. For artists who live in and love Maine, winter is a quieter time, a time to explore the natural world and see it afresh. Blankets of snow soften the landscape, shards of river ice turn the shore into a cubist wonderland, and the cold, clear light intensifies the blues of sea and sky. Even an overcast day can end with an explosion of color as the setting sun stripes the sky and transforms the clouds into a thousand shades of pink and yellow.

Janice Anthony, one of Maine’s most respected realists and a recent addition to Gleason’s roster of artists, lives in rural Jackson, Maine, where she and her husband live on and operate a farm. Anthony’s serene, meticulously painted woodland brooks are meditations on the welcome hush that a winter snow brings to our hectic world. In late winter, Anthony’s water-swollen rivers overflow their banks, stacking jagged chunks of ice into great, translucent piles.

Mitch Billis’s magnificent views of Wotton’s Dock at dusk in January capture a moment of such beauty that one wonders if such a place can really exist. Of course, it does exist; but seen through the eyes of an artist of Billis’ caliber, the ordinary becomes extraordinary. Billis shows us that grays aren’t really gray at all, but mauves, purples, and blues, and the dull sky actually shimmers with a delicate mistiness that will disappear in minutes as the sun sinks lower in the sky.

Tom Curry could live anywhere, but he and his wife chose the village of Brooklin, Maine, where Tom’s singular passion focusses on the small island of Chatto, which floats in Blue Hill Bay in sight of his studio. Tom paints Chatto at all times of day and in all types of weather. In “Record Snowfall,” a 36 by 43 inch oil, the entire bottom third of the painting is a mountain of snow. The white is so pure and cold as to feel arctic. Tiny Chatto Island can just be seen peeking out from behind the great mass of snow, while the sky above is striped with delicate shades of pink and blue.

“Celebrating Winter” also includes paintings by renowned East Boothbay artist Andrea Peters, whose lushly painted winter landscapes have appeared in several publications, including Down East magazine and the Maine SundayTelegram. Kevin Beers, who recently became a full-time Maine resident, is represented with “Winter Blues,” an oil painting of an old work truck that’s seen better days and is now buried, forgotten, in a deep winter snow.

With their art, Anthony, Billis, Curry, Peters, and Beers all celebrate Maine in winter. It is a quiet Maine, absent the crowds and hustle and bustle of summer. It is also a Maine of unearthly beauty, something that must be seen and experienced to be understood. 

Gleason Fine Art is located 31 Townsend Avenue in Boothbay Harbor. Winter hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and by appointment. For more information, contact the gallery: 633-6849, info@gleasonfineart.com, or view “Celebrating Winter” and the gallery’s entire inventory of contemporary and estate art at www.gleasonfineart.com.