Arts & Leisure
Comprehensive exhibit by Maine's Eric Hopkins at Rivertree
By Rose Safran
YORK - Recent works by Maine's Eric Hopkins is currently on view at the Rivertree
Center for the Arts in Kennebunk's Lower Village.
The Bangor native, who lives in North Haven, learned early in his life to appreciate the art of such Maine notables as Louise Nevelson, John Marin and Marsden Hartley. Viewing the output of these modernists stood him well.
Additionally, he has stayed close to his roots as a Mainer. And he has been immensely successful in so doing, not only living in a beautiful unspoiled place, but also in earning his living from his art.
I learn from this solo exhibit that Hopkins is still in his 50s; he's been around as a "name" in Maine for so long, with his work in museum and major gallery exhibits, in books, in major museum and private collections, that I have tended to think of him as somewhat older.
I learn, too, from chatting with the lobby attendee at this exhibit, that Hopkins, who is an alumnus of the Rhode Island School of Design and taught at Deer Isle's Haystack School, is a pilot. That information hits me - it becomes a sort of a wakeup call, adding knowledge to the nature of his work, explaining his "outreaching" perspectives, his streamlined multi-colored horizons, his stretched forms of pine tree-rich islands that seem to float in bright blue waters, his wild "water shapes," his inclusion of white blobs of clouds interrupting, on occasion, the variously hued sky - I've sometimes linked the treatment of forms in some of his works to those of modernist Arthur Dove - his appreciation of the untouched, unspoiled in nature, and above all, his sense of playfulness - and optimism.
Up there in the heavens, he must make twists and turns, get different approaches, new impressions and images. For the pilot, especially the pilot flying over the ocean, is an adventurer, exploring a non-static universe. The ocean below is alive, like a person, temperamental, ever-changing; from minute to minute, it washes the land in an endless variety of ways as we all know too well - gently as well as ferociously - always persistently. Seen from lofty heights, its forms change; the islands, too, have forms of their own. Soaring above it all at different heights, it's a vast, moving panorama there for the taking.
And available for translation into art. Hopkins is one of the few artists concentrating heavily on the island universe off the coast of Maine. This Maine island universe may be inhabited, but one wouldn't know it from these paintings - and Hopkins clearly isn't interested in man-made intrusion. Nature-in-the-raw is transmitted. Neither abstract nor exactly representational, Hopkins' paintings are unusual for their treatment of space, which seems endless - a sense of infinity reflected. This brightly colored world may be fiction, and perhaps unrealistic today, but certainly it is joyful.
Painted digital prints as well as watercolors with gouache and prismacolor are the primary media on view in these paintings. I particularly noted "Glowing Water with Bright Trees," in which a golden western-style sunset dominated. There are also three blown-glass globes with images infused. In addition to the original paintings and globes there is an "Eric Hopkins: Waypoints" poster available, which was created in conjunction with the exhibit of that name held at the Farnsworth Museum in Rockland a few years ago.
The current exhibit, entitled "From Classic Hopkins towards New Horizons" will remain on view through May 14. The River Tree Center for the Arts is located at 35 Western Avenue in Kennebunk. For further information call 987-9120.
