Beginning now and running through Oct. 13, Gleason Fine Art is hosting Roger Dale Brown's second solo show with the gallery.  Brown, one of the foremost marine painters in the country, is from Tennessee, but as with nearly all artists, especially plein-air painters, he loves the coast of Maine and visits as often as he can.

For his first solo show, Brown sought out secluded and overlooked spots in and around the Boothbay peninsula, including the Road's End lobster pound and three local boatyards. All were summer-time paintings.

For his second solo show, Brown has explored some of his favorite Midcoast out-of-the-way inlets, boatyards, and farmhouses in deep winter. These are intimate, quiet paintings, as hushed as the natural world is when it is wrapped in snow. Brown's focus is on the winter light as it strikes and warms snow-covered coves and buildings.

In the lovely painting "Ice Fields," a tiny fish shack with a rusty red roof sits alone on the edge of an icy inlet. The deep-blue open water, shimmering iced-over cove, and chunky ice floes lining the edge of a field all combine to create a sense of serenity and peace. This is the Maine that those of us who are here in winter know and cherish.

"Shipyard" takes the viewer to a familiar place, but at a less familiar time of year. Gone are the hustle and bustle of boats leaving or landing. Instead, lobster boats, sail boats, and dories sit on dry land, and the stone pier is coated with snow. The boatyard in winter is a quiet place; everything is stowed and stored, waiting for spring.

With this body of new work, Brown shows us how beautiful he finds Maine in winter. But there is one painting in this group that is not a winter scene, and it is stunning. "End of the Regatta," a big oil, shows a group of schooners heading home at dusk after a day of racing. The setting sun, which is just going behind a bank of cumulus clouds, has created a glowing path of light across the sea, and the sky is losing its last bits of color. Lights along the shore have come on, seeming to welcome the fleet home. "End of the Regatta" does share something in common with its snowy counterparts in this show: that sense of quiet and peace that clearly artist Roger Dale Brown feels we all need more of these days.

Although there will be no reception, Gleason Fine Art at 31 Townsend Ave., in Boothbay Harbor is maintaining regular hours: Monday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday noon to 5 p.m.

For more information, call the gallery at 633-6849; email the gallery at info@gleasonfineart.com; or visit the gallery website--gleasonfineart.com--to view Roger Dale Brown's show and the gallery's entire inventory of contemporary and estate art.