BOOTHBAY HARBOR

The Opera House celebrates the lively art scene in Boothbay Harbor this fall with an autumn show by artist Rick Dickinson.

Starting this week, the second-floor gallery brought in works covering genres including still life, portrait, figure and landscape. An opening reception, including a presentation by Dickinson, will take place from 5-7 p.m. in the gallery on Tuesday, Sept. 25.

Dickinson said the show will include “two styles dating back to the start of the 20th Century, a typical impressionistic style coming out of Cape Cod and taught by Lois Griffel and Henry Hensche and a more thoroughly rendered form of impressionism coming out of Boston as taught by Paul Ingbretson and Ives Gammel.”

He said that “the ‘experts’ urge me to focus on a single style and genre. However, I’ll continue to resist any genre focus and paint whatever interests me on any given day. And I struggle to find my own voice. A voice that incorporates the two styles of art that I’ve enjoyed and can be recognized as something quite different, an audacious thought that may be well beyond my pay grade.”

He has had extensive study with Paul Ingbretson at the Ingbretson Studio of Drawing and Painting, an atelier now in Lawrence, Mass., in addition to limited study at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art in Philadelphia and the Maine College of Art in Portland. He also has had individual study with Lois Griffel, Ty Hodanish, Ann Templeton, Don Stone, Don Demers and Lee Boynton among others.

Dickinson has a goal, to refine his craft to be the best painter he can possible be when he “eventually tips over.” As visitors observe his work, they will see the evolution of his skills as he works to become a Boston School painter, according to the opera house.

In words he’s borrowed from Frank Benson, Dickinson says, “The only fun in life is trying hard to do something you can’t quite accomplish.”

He and his wife, Pandora, maintain an oceanfront home on Southport, Maine, and studios on Southport and in Lawrence, Mass.

The Dickinson show will be open to visitors from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays through Nov. 14, as well prior to all Opera House performances and events scheduled this fall.