Arts & Leisure
Remembering Robert Eric Moore, 1927-2006
By Rose Safran
Robert Eric MooreCourtesy photo
His paintings were a natural fit with the homelike atmosphere of this small, tasteful gallery that was housed in a period structure. Here was New England written big with a fluid watercolor brush reflecting a special sensitivity for the land's tones, both delicate and harsh, a vast knowledge of the area's seasonal versatility as well as of all the little aspects of an endowed landscape offering innumerable opportunities to this artist's acute eye. For what is an artist but an observer, a record-keeper of place and moment who interprets what he sees within the framework of his special skill?
The tracks of an animal impressed on uninhabited snow-covered woodland, the vibrant ever-changing ocean crashing against the rigid cliffs or, on the other hand, quietly lapping against the inviting shore, the marshlands with ribbons of curved streams interrupting blades of windswept grass, tall trees stripped of leaves, their bare, twisted limbs a wonderland of natural sculpture - such were his subjects.
Winter. Robert Eric Moore loved winter - the challenges, the silence, the endless opportunities it offered his art, the serenity, the whiteness, the animals seen here and there and the purity of it all. He was solidly linked to the land, whether hiking, fishing, hunting or painting - this was his world.
New Hampshire born, Robert Eric Moore vacationed at his grandparents' York Beach home, studied at the University of New Hampshire and the New England School of Art, spent two years in the Navy, married and settled in York, restoring an old farmhouse on Route 91, his home for many years where he and his wife Meg raised their three children, Michael, Deirdre and Bridget, who owns the D. C. Moore Gallery in New York City.
In more recent years, he had moved to Waldoboro, but continued to exhibit, sell art and visit here and remained in touch with the local artists' groups until illness curtailed his activity. He died Oct. 10 of cancer in Newburyport, Mass.
Only yesterday, it seems, I met Robert Eric Moore in his Cider Hill farmhouse, which sat high off the road. There, I spent an afternoon with him and his late wife, Meg, also an artist. Certainly Meg was his best friend, relieving him of the business aspect of selling art, enabling him to concentrate on creating his oeuvre. Robert Eric Moore was one of those unusual artists who, instead of resorting to a steady income from teaching studio art, which limits many artists' creative time, managed to live and paint in York, raise and support a family here, and to do so solely on the sales of his paintings - thereby, sending his special version of New England's many visual messages into homes just about everywhere.
An invited member of several American art organizations, including the prestigious American Watercolor Society and the National Academy of Design, he was listed in "Who's Who in American Art" and "Who's Who in the East" and his friend, area artist Edward Betts, included his art in his book, "Creative Seascape Painting." Carl Little's 2006 book, "Paintings of Maine" includes a reproduction of one of his acrylic works, "Chicory," with blue florals in the foreground and a calm cove of rocks and sea beyond.
Robert Eric Moore's art was (and is) exhibited not only at local associations and galleries along our seacoast, but also was included in shows at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Brunswick's Bowdoin College Museum of Art, the American Embassy in Ottawa, Canada, Lincoln's DeCordova Museum, Boston's Kennedy Library and in New York City at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Centennial of the American Watercolor Society. I recall seeing at least one of his paintings included in a fairly recent National Arts Club exhibition in New York City.
His awards - gold and silver medals among them - are too numerable to mention, but include the 1987 Grumbacher Gold Medallion at the Audubon Artists 45th Annual Exhibition and the 1989 Soloway Memorial Award at the Allied Artists of America's 76th exhibition in New York City in 1989. In 2003, he was invited to be the juror of awards at the National Academy of Design's 178th Annual Exhibition.
Locally, his paintings have been exhibited and for sale at Gloria Gustafson's Village Gallery. A memorial gathering attended by friends was held Sunday, Oct.15, at York's Lucas & Eaton Funeral Home.
