Page 77 - CA 2019 Final(3)

Bld, oiginal &

ditinctly Maine

Artist Philip Barter

“Eastern Dragger” 45” x 45” acrylic on linen
feature & artist photo by Christina T ee

painting phot s courtesy of Philip Barter

A view of the gallery
“My paintings are real, not realistic,” Philip Barter said, about his bright, bold, highly original work that distills the light, shapes,
and energy of Maine’s landscape.

Phil’s family dates back 200 years in Boothbay Harbor. They were boat builders, carpenters, and mechanics, so he grew up work-
ing with tools and boats, but he also loved to draw.

“I got in trouble in high school for always drawing,” Phil said. On his return home after a stint in the army, without encouragement
or formal training, he determined to be an artist.
It was the early 1960s and, with a copy of Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” in hand, Phil headed out for California. There he worked
on boats and hung out on the beach with free spirits gathered there from around the country. He met Alfonso Sosa, an abstract express-
ionist painter who introduced him to the work of contemporary artists, notably, that of Lewiston-born modernist Marsden Hartley. He
was deeply affected by Hartley’s paintings and his rendition of lobster fishermen on the dock in Corea made Barter homesick.

“I’m going back to Maine. I’ll pick up where he (Hartley) left off!” Phil remembered thinking. He is the first to admit what an
audacious plan this was for someone without formal art training. But that is exactly what has happened. While his own work echoes
the color, energy, and simplified renderings of Hartley’s late-life landscapes, his own bold, distinctive style now has its share of emu-
lators.

Phil returned to Boothbay Harbor, but soon moved farther Downeast, beyond Bar Harbor to “where the real people are.” Initial-
ly he settled on the Schoodic Peninsula, getting by with carpentry and work on fishing boats. He also harvested mussels. “No one
was doing that in Maine at the time but we had lived on mussels in California.” He bought 50 acres, tore down a barn and built a
small house and fell in love with the rugged landscape.

Phil also discovered a congenial community of local artists and craftspeople who displayed their work at the Pine Tree Kiln in
Sullivan. Owned by English-born potter Dennis Bivert, the gallery was frequented by summer residents along this far side of French-
man’s Bay.
“I got a check for $600 and said, ‘I can live and paint six months of the year,’” Phil said. “Next year I did a little better.” In the
1970s and early ‘80s he became known for lively, boldly colored paintings of Maine people and iconic places like Red’s Eats, Moody’s
Diner, and Dunbar’s Store. These “narrative paintings” won him recognition, but it was as a folk artist and he chafed at the label.

continued on the next page
75