Rick Dickinson is the featured artist at the Southport Memorial Library in November and December.

Dickinson grew up in West Sand Lake, a small town in upstate New York, where he first painted as a teenager.  He graduated from Indiana Institute of Technology with a degree in engineering and enjoyed a successful career as an executive in the construction industry.  He left his career in 2007 and returned to his true passion, oil painting. He and his wife, Pandora, maintain a home and studios on Southport, Maine, and Lawrence Massachusetts.

He has had extensive study in the “Boston School” with Paul Ingbretson at the Ingbretson Studio of Drawing and Painting, an atelier located in Lawrence, Massachusetts and in the “Cape School” with Lois Griffel from Green Valley, Arizona, both different forms of impressionism.  Rick has also had additional study at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the Maine College of Art, Portland, and individual study with Ty Hodanish, Ann Templeton, Don Stone, Don Demers and Lee Boynton, among others.

Rick’s goal, is to develop his craft to be the best painter he can possible be when he eventually tips over. To put it much more audaciously, the goal is to develop to the point that he could be considered one of the next generation of painters to become as skillful as a member of the group from the past called “The Ten.” In the early 1900s “The Ten” were 10 American Painters who defined the pinnacle of American Painting and craftsmanship. Now, he knows this goal may not be obtainable. It’s a language to visualize a desired level of skill. It’s the rabbit in a greyhound race. It’s a goal that can’t be reached but maintains the momentum to continue the chase, day in, day out. Rick will continue to work to be the best he can be when the race ends, and his work will be plenty good enough, and it is now. He currently works in the style of the Boston School primarily for his own amusement, trusting that you’ll find the beauty he feels.

It is said that the appeal of the craftsmanship of a Boston School painter is not solely dependent on interest in subjective significance. Its charm lies in beauty of the interpretation, the observation and image captured by the painter. The compositions are thoughtful and well-balanced, and the subject matter centered on beauty.  Sunlight and atmosphere pervade the image which the artist paints but the effect is not forced. In dealing with subtleties the painter does not resort to tricks or abstractions, so his pictures are understood and appreciated almost as well by the general public as by his colleagues and critics. A Boston School Masterpiece never needs explanation, it simply extrudes beauty that lights up a room while communicating poetry through the use of rich colors and finely contemplated brushwork while capturing the light effect.  It needs to be about the light effect with full color, finely rendered without compromise.  

The Southport Memorial Library is located at 1032 Hendrick Hill Road, Southport. Its winter hours are Tuesday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.; Thursday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. and 6-8 p.m.; and Saturday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.

For more information, call 633-2741.