‘Henry Isaacs: From Portland to Mount Desert and Everywhere In Between’

Gleason Fine Art opens its 39th July with a dazzling show by gallery favorite Henry Isaacs. “Henry Isaacs: From Portland to Mt. Desert and Everywhere in Between” opens Wednesday, July 3, and runs through Aug. 6. Friends, collectors, and fellow artists are invited to the gallery on Friday, July 5, from 5 to 7 p.m. to meet Henry and view the gallery’s latest collection of Henry’s oils.

Henry Isaacs has traveled the world over, painting as he goes–the Himalayas (twice), Europe, Central and South America, Africa, and 49 of the 50 United States. For his 2024 show, Henry decided to paint closer to home in one of his favorite parts of the world, the section of the Maine coast that stretches from Portland to Mount Desert.

Isaacs paints with energy, passion, and self-assurance. His style–broken brushwork and a palette of delicate blues, greens, pinks, and yellows–marks him as one of the most recognizable artists painting in Maine today. As Portland arts writer Dan Kany has written: “Isaacs is an extraordinary colorist. Consider his ‘Ram Island, Ocean Point, East Boothbay.’ It looks something like what you might get if Matisse tried to copy a Van Gogh using a pastel fauvist palette.’” Isaacs’s methodology is as unique as his paintings are. He never works from photographs. Instead he makes tiny oil paintings he calls “notes” that attempt to capture the essence of whatever takes his eye. Some of these “notes” are just a few brush flicks. Others, though small in size, resemble finished paintings. To arrive at his goal, Isaacs may “size up” one of his notes several times until he is satisfied with the finished painting.

While Henry Isaacs’s paintings are treasures, Henry himself may be even more so. Join us Friday from 5 to 7 pm, to share a glass of wine and many stories with artist Henry Isaacs.

Gleason Fine Art, 31 Townsend Ave. in Boothbay Harbor: T: 207-633-6849; E: info@gleasonfineart.com. To see Henry’s show, as well as the gallery’s inventory of 20th and 21st century art, check out our new website: gleasonfinart.com