(Image: Untitled Watercolor by Willard Goodman, Circa 1985)

(Peaks Island, ME) Richard Boyd Art Gallery announces a grand reopening on March 3rd from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm featuring a retrospective exhibit of 20th century Peaks Island Art. Whether theatrical art, music or traditional art, Peaks Island has always been a haven for artists. The retrospective exhibit explores a full range of artistic works by eight artists working on Peaks Island during the 1970s through the 1980s. On view are over 25 works of art from private collections, many of the pieces having not been on public display for over 30 years.

The exhibit includes works of art from the early days of some of the artists’ careers, including previously unseen works, artist proofs and development works. For many of the artists, fresh out of art school, Peaks Island was an inspiration for or had an influence on their early works. The exhibit features works in ceramic art, drawings, paintings, pottery, prints and stained glass. On view are works by Richard (Rick) Boyd, Willard Goodman, Jane Gross Guenther, Larry Hayden, Theodore (Ted) Haykal, Lavendier Myers, Claudia Whitman and Geoffrey Vollers.

(Image: Untitled Sketch by Jane Gross, Circa 1978)

Richard (Rick) Boyd
Rick has produced pottery on Peaks Island since 1976. His work is functional and intended to be used. Boyd has taken a seminar with Warren Mackenzie, one of the greatest living 20th century American potters, and pottery courses at Vanderbilt University, Maine College of Art and has served as a mentor and visiting artist at Nicolet College in Wisconsin. Boyd’s pottery is exhibited nationally and is collected for its classic forms and unique glazes.

Willard Goodman
A graduate of Ontario College of Art, Willard worked as a fine and commercial artist in New York before moving to Portland in the early 1980s and later to Peaks Island. Willard, a quiet activist for waterfront preservation, was commissioned to create a poster and slogan restricting waterfront development in Portland. The poster series popped up all over town and helped win the 1987 referendum, restricting waterfront development. Goodman continued to support waterfront preservation by creating the “Maine Impressions” poster series. Willard’s work spans many genres, although in his later years he painted mostly local landscapes, landmarks and coastal Maine scenes until his death in 1995. His works are included in many private and public collections.

Jane Gross Guenther
Jane Gross was already an established artist before moving to Maine in 1975, having won numerous awards, exhibiting nationally and though out the state of Florida. A multi talented artist, Jane’s body of work includes sculpture, painting, prints, drawings and pottery. The subject matter of Gross’s paintings and prints span multiple genres: figures, landscapes, portraits and still life.

Larry Hayden
Larry Hayden’s works have been exhibited regularly in local and national galleries since 1979. His works are part of the permanent collections of numerous museums including The Farnsworth Art Museum and Portland Museum of Art and are held in private collections including Fidelity Investments, in Boston and the L.L. Bean collection. Larry served on the Maine Arts Commission’s Artists’ panel for the percent for art program, and had works published in Design Language by Tim McCreight and Intuition Painting by Dean Nimmer.

Theodore (Ted) Haykal
Haykal moved to Peaks Island in the early 1980s. A graduate of the University of Massachusetts, he studied print making and drawing and holds degrees in studio art, art education, and art history, with a minor in psychology. A classical realist, Haykal’s portraits done in pencil on paper capture a moment in time, conveying the inner spirit of his subject in fine detail. Ted’s portraits are exhibited nationally and collected for the sense of spirit and realism they convey.

Lavendier Myers
Before moving to Peaks Island in the 1980s, Lavendier grew up on the New England coast, spending time in Vermont and Cape Cod and formative years in Greece, the United Kingdom and Mexico. Her work is influenced by the “psyche and colors” of those regions. She is a graduate of Goddard College, Plainfield, Vermont and studied at Corcoran School of Art in Washington, DC, with Hayes Friedman, Brockie Stevenson and Blaine Davis. Weather permitting, Myers likes to paint outdoors from direct observation. Myers has exhibited locally, nationally and internationally.

Claudia Whitman
Claudia Whitman moved to the island in 1975. She received her Bachelors in Fine Arts from Goucher College in Towson, Maryland, her Bachelors in Fine Arts in painting from Portland School of Art in Portland, Maine and her Masters degree in art education from New York University. At NYU, Whitman studied with Vaclav Vytlacil, one of the forerunners of American modernism at the Art Students League, as well as Esteban Vicente who had a major influence on her work. Her works continue to be exhibited nationally and are part of many private collections. Currently, Claudia spends part of the year on Peaks Island and part of the year in Colorado where she resides.

Geoffrey Vollers
Geoffrey received a Masters of Fine Art at The Rochester Institute of Technology. Vollers moved to Peaks Island in the early 1980’s where he lived and worked as a painter, sculptor and stained glass artist until 1988. Geoffrey currently lives in South Thomaston, Maine where he continues to create art concentrating on wood sculpture, furniture and miniatures.

The PIA Retrospective exhibit is free to the public and will be on view weekends from 10:00 am through 4:00 pm through March 25th. All other times are by chance or appointment. Richard Boyd Art Gallery is located on Peaks Island at the corner of Island Avenue and Epps Street in the first building on the right. The gallery exhibits one of a kind 20th and 21st century works of art by established and up and coming artists working in the media of ceramics, glass, paintings, pottery and sculpture. An art studio producing hand made one of a kind art with a focus on ceramic art and pottery is located on the second floor. For more information, please contact Pamela at the gallery by phone at 207-712-1097, via email at williamson955@aol.com or by visiting www.richardboydpottery.com.

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