Bruce MacDonald is the July Artist of the Month at the Boothbay Harbor Memorial Library. The show will be held  upstairs in the Community Room and features oil and acrylic paintings as well as digital images.

Bruce describes himself as “a largely self-taught painter, having learned the basics of oil painting at home from his Grandmother, Edith Coggeshall Pulsifer, a graduate of Vesper George School of Art in Boston.”  He also, quite callously, dropped plans for an art major when he started at Bowdoin College, deciding early on that he couldn't make a living in art. Long ago he took lessons from Albert Czerepak in Gloucester and more recently has taken several courses in color theory with Peter Brown at the Maine College of Art.

Bruce  paints landscapes and seascapes primarily, but has also enjoyed doing some portrait work. Like many painters, his interest is in portraying the effect of light and shadow on the varied places, objects, and people of the world around him. In his art he tries to capture distance and space. He says, “The challenge is in creating a sense of space, of three dimensions on two, and of the effects of sunlight, when in fact paint can only give off reflected light at a tiny fraction of the light of the sun. The enjoyment and the frustration is in dealing with these limitations.” Rockwell Kent and Edward Hopper are two of his favorite painters, and he sees his work as influenced in some small way by theirs.

 In 2006 he had an exhibition of paintings at Bowdoin College. His paintings were displayed at the Maine State House under the Arts in the Capitol Program in 2012 sponsored by the Maine Arts Commission. He has also exhibited at the Northlight Gallery in Millinocket. A painter all of his adult life, he has sold numbers of paintings to private collectors.

Bruce lives in Boothbay with his partner Georgia, and has created a studio for his work on Back River Road in Boothbay. His work can also be seen at the  Boothbay Region Art Foundation, of which he is a member, in Boothbay Harbor and  at www.brucemacdonaldart.com. Contact him at  bmacdon@roadrunner.com. 

The Boothbay Harbor Memorial Library is located at 4 Oak Street in Boothbay Harbor. For hours of operation, call the library at 633-3112 or visit https://bbhlibrary.org.