Jul. 9—Want to see your favorite spots in the neighborhood on canvas?
The Cape Elizabeth Land Trust’s 18th annual juried plein air benefit will be held July 11-13, with the culminating auction beginning at 4 p.m. on Sunday.
Paint for Preservation will feature the work of 30 artists, some local and some coming from out of state. During the weekend, the artists will be sprinkled across Cape Elizabeth’s most jaw-dropping scenery, each painting a landscape of their assigned location in their own distinct style.
Some painters set up in public, drawing crowds of all ages to watch them work.
“The art is really top-notch,” said Claudia Dricot, one of the founders of the event. “It really makes you appreciate where you live. I look around me in awe that Cape Elizabeth looks like that.” And she said that every year, they sell all of the pieces, raising more than $100,000 for the land trust.
Each painter will paint a large landscape piece for the auction, and mystery boxes, or small paintings no bigger than 10-by-10-inch paintings, will also be for sale.
In advance of this event, get to know four of the artists who will be painting the tall grasses, rocky coasts and swirling waves that define Cape Elizabeth.
COOPER DRAGONETTE
Cooper Dragonette has been enamored with the landscape of Maine since he moved to the state more than 30 years ago. The Cape Elizabeth resident has been participating in the event for about 10 years, “too many to count.”
He describes his style as poetic realism, and he said he’s inspired by “simplicity, a beautiful view, lighting, simple shapes, shadows, reflected light and something that tells a narrative.”
He fell in love with the landscape and lighting of Cape Elizabeth ever since he moved here in the 90s. Sometimes, when he’s running errands around the cape at sunset, he said he wishes he could be painting instead of bringing his recycling to the dump.
For Dragonette, painting is a lot like fishing. “You find a nice place to stand, but you’re not guaranteed you’re going to catch anything,” he said. “When I set up my easel, there’s no guarantee it’s going to turn out well.”
What makes a good painting then? Simplicity.
Dragonette began his working life in Maine as a sailing instructor with Outward Bound up in Rockland, where he met his wife. He decided he wanted to stop living out of a duffel bag and establish some roots, and in the process of becoming a teacher, he took a painting class and fell in love with plein air painting.
He painted for a while in tandem with his art teaching practice, pushing himself to paint a 6-by-8-inch painting a day. He’s been a professional artist for the past 12 years, showing some of his work at the Portland Art Gallery.
He loves that there are “so many amazing views a stone’s throw from my house” to paint.
MATTHEW RUSS
Along the rocky coast, Matthew Russ squeezed burnt yellows and vibrant blues onto his palette. A family of ducks played in the water at the island in the distance, past the blank wood panel. He took a deep breath, bowed, then started painting, first only with blue. Strokes, then a line.
“My horizon lines get lower and lower as the years go by,” he laughed. “I just love the sky.”
A backpack large enough to hold his entire setup leaned against his easel. Russ only paints outdoors, year-round, and he often hikes to tucked-away locations. He has a studio in Waterville, but he said that he primarily uses that space for building canvases and photographing his work.
“Nature is my muse,” he said.
He fell in love with the woods growing up in Cape Elizabeth, playing with friends in Robinson Woods and at Crescent Beach, wandering and exploring. He said that when he paints he “still feels like a kid just playing.”
In his paintings, Russ has an affinity for long-distance views, painting something that might be a mile or half-mile away. “You can’t see all the details,” he said. “It creates a mythical, folkloric and dreamlike quality.”
Sometimes, Russ completes series of paintings, coming back to the same spot on different days, trying to capture the fleeting feeling of being there at one particular time.
“I’m as interested in the feeling of a place as I am in the intricate details,” he said. “I like my paintings to be a connecting point between me and nature, and in translation between the viewer and nature.”
Russ studied studio art at Colby College, and he’s shown his work in a number of galleries across the state. When he’s not painting, he volunteers at the Colby College Art Museum and Waterville Creates as an art preparator. He helps to install exhibitions, “holding the paintings by some of my heroes,” he said.
MARGARET GIACOBBE
Margaret Giacobbe, of Kennebunkport, never imagined being anything but an artist.
When she was a little girl, her dad converted part of their garage into her studio. And when her family vacationed to Goose Rocks Beach to visit her aunts, uncles, grandparents and 30 cousins, she would rather draw or paint on the shore than sail on the ocean.
She had her first solo show when she was 25, and even when she was working in advertising, she found time to paint. Before moving to Kennebunkport in 2015, she used to commute to southern Maine from Massachusetts to paint plein air.
“It’s a place you never tire of,” she said. “Everything is always changing.”
She believes that her job as a landscape painter is to help viewers “find the spark,” that intangible essence that makes a sunset so pretty or an ocean view so captivating. “I want people to travel trough the landscape and land on one thing,” she said. Sometimes, it’s only there for a split second, she said.
When she paints outdoors, Giacobbe is drawn to marshes, and she loves to find remote spots to paint.
Giacobbe spends about half of her time painting outdoors and the other half of her time in her studio. She likes the benefits of both, the spontaneity of plein air painting and the refinement of working in the studio.
COLIN PAGE
Colin Page, of Camden, didn’t know he was going to end up owning a gallery in Maine. But as a child, he loved to draw, and he knew he wanted to be an artist.
After graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design and Cooper Union, Page lived in New York City. On a whim, he moved to Maine for a winter to take a break from the hustle and bustle.
He fell in love with the people. “Everyone I met when I moved here seemed to do something with their hands,” he said, “and be creative in rewarding ways.” So he decided to stick around and paint the diversity of subject matter.
Page describes his style as impressionistic and gestural, and when he’s painting outdoors, he likes “to find the still life in the landscape.” A boat in the harbor is more appealing to him than the open ocean.
Whenever Page is painting, he’s drawn to interesting light or color effects. A deep red lobster boat on green water. A tree that has beautiful light creeping through its leaves. A foggy day with hazy light with pinkish and bluish tints.
In 2018, Page took on a new creative pursuit, establishing a gallery with friend and fellow artist Kirsten Surbey. He said it’s helped him be more in touch with the art world, through studio visits and curation, which in turn has helped him think more intentionally about his own practice.
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