Ars Longa Vita Brevis

I've been painting watercolors since my assignment as ambassador to Algeria in 2008-2011.  I continued in Afghanistan 2011-2012, Washington 2012-2013, and Greece 2013-2016.  Within two years of leaving the Foreign Service I had begun building my D D Pearce Fine Art website and making my work available for sale.  A few years ago I added a site for fine art prints at GeoGalleries.com and this past year I started up an Etsy shop for prints. 

Since 2018 I have sold 51 paintings, and 41 of them since 2020.  At last count, I had shipped my work to nine states, the District of Columbia, and ten foreign countries.  My work has hung in the U.S. ambassador's residences in Algiers and Athens.  It has been exhibited at the Thos. Moser showroom and gallery in Freeport, ME; the American Foreign Service Association in Washington, D.C.; and at the gallery of the San Clemente (CA) Art Association.  Last summer I did a solo show at the Blue Hill Public Library in Blue Hill, Maine.  I have been profiled in the Portland Press Herald, Bowdoin magazine, the Bangor Daily News, and the Ellsworth American.

Not least, I was recently surprised and pleased to be invited to exhibit this September at the Watercolor International show in Thessaloniki, Greece, a major event featuring some of the best watercolor masters in the world.  The painting of mine selected by the curator of the show is Donkeys Waiting for Fare, Hydra, a piece I did while serving as ambassador to Greece 2013-2016.  The curator is a very accomplished Greek watercolor artist named George Politis. He loved that a former U.S. ambassador to Greece also loves watercolor and painted Greece. 

So, knock on wood, I feel as though I'm getting a bit of traction. In that regard, I would note that Jaffa Kaak Seller, Circa 1940 has now made the Boldbrush FAV 15 two months in a row -- for contests in April and May.  The Boldbrush competition is a monthly online event that draws entries from all over the world in oil, acrylic, watercolor, pastel, mixed media, photography sculpture and digital art. In addition to cash awards for the top pieces in various categories, the Boldbrush staff also select their favorite 15% of all entries submitted.  With more than 2,000 entries each month from all over the world, it is nice recognition to make that cut.  I've now made it eight times in the past three years, with five different paintings. 

*****

We returned to Maine from California in early May.  And when I get back after having been away for a while, I like to mark the occasion with a new watercolor.  This year I decided to return to a favorite theme -- the landmark Sparhawk Mill on the Royal River in Yarmouth. I've always been fascinated by this old brick building and some years ago I did a fairly large painting of it from the perspective of the dam at Second Falls.  This time, I decided on a different perspective -- the view from the bridge spanning the river next to the mill. It looks down at the swirling waters as the river turns and churns over rock ledge and narrows its course for a final run to First Falls and the sea. 

I began the project with a 7 x 10 inch preliminary study.  The overall tone of this piece was fairly subdued, so I decided to paint the gangplank in front of the mill, near the focal point, red. Hence the name, Red Gangplank.  Then, having worked out most of the compositional issues with the smaller piece, I began a larger one. It would be similar but I wanted more vivid color in the background trees and more action in the white water of the foreground. Hence the name of the second piece, White Water at Sparhawk Mill.

There was, in fact, plenty of white water at the time I worked on the painting because the river was high and running fast. The volume of the Royal River is determined by outflow from its source 26 miles upstream at Sabbathday Lake. I presume the high volume released was a function of both rain and snowmelt. The original name for the river was Wescustogo, from the Abenaki words, wescus, meaning clear, and tegooe, meaning a stream moved by wind or tide, therefore meaning a clear stream moved by wind or tide. This is very apt since the river empties into a long tidal estuary at its mouth in Yarmouth. 

According to local historical societies, the current name derives from the settlement of William and Phoebe Royall on the east side of the river in 1636.  They reportedly farmed an area between the Wescustogo/Royal River in what is now Yarmouth and the Cousins River in what is now Freeport.