Gleason Fine Art's 2025 season-opening show, "Kevin Beers: On My Own," begins on Thursday, June 19, and runs through July 15. Kevin's receptions are on both First Friday, July 4, and Saturday, July 5, from 5 to 7 pm. Kevin will be at the Saturday reception. The public is cordially invited to stop by the gallery, have a glass of wine, and chat with Kevin, who is always excited to share his many stories with you.

In his new show, Beers, a Maine resident for four years, will dazzle his many admirers with brushy oils of brilliant white buildings with red rooves, bluebird blue skies, and busy working harbors. Beers's popularity as an artist feels like a given these days, but as an art student during a time when abstraction was all the rage, Beers's professors were constantly criticizing him for his passion for realism. Beers' muse was not the ab-ex practitioners such as Jackson Pollock. Instead, he was drawn to the powerful realism of Edward Hopper, George Bellows, and Robert Henri, all of whom loved Maine and returned to the coast frequently, especially Monhegan Island.

Some years after art school, Beers was finally able to visit the Maine coast. The weather was terrible, and he did not make it out to Monhegan. Kevin persisted and two years later, when he returned to Maine, his luck turned: the weather was wonderful and he did make it to the famed artists' island. He marveled at all that was spread out before him like a Bellows painting: the craggy shoreline, dramatic headlands, crashing surf, and the intense blue sky studded with big, white clouds. Beers was smitten; here at last was a place that beckoned to be painted. He returned to the island every summer for years. Finally, after quitting his job in NYC and selling his apartment in Brooklyn, he was able to buy his own home on the Maine coast.

After the tragic and unsettling loss of a large number of his paintings in the 2023 fires that destroyed several buildings in Port Clyde, it took a year for Kevin to re-energize and regroup. After a trip to visit family in California and a long, restorative stay on Monhegan last summer, Kevin returned to his studio this winter with renewed energy and passion. With over two dozen fresh canvases, "Kevin Beers: On My Own" celebrates Kevin's return to painting and to Monhegan.

Gleason Fine Art, 31 Townsend Ave. in Boothbay Harbor, has been an annual finalist in Down East magazine's "Best Of" contest for seven years in a row, winning the category of "Best Art Gallery in Maine" twice. The gallery, a Boothbay Harbor staple since 1985, is owned by the Gleason Family, Dennis, Andrew, and Martha. Both Andrew and Martha are Boothbay Harbor natives.

To see Kevin's show, and the gallery's inventory, check out the new, easy-to-use website, https://www.gleasonfineart.com/. Phone us at: 207-633-6849; email to: info@gleasonfineart.com. Gleason Fine Art is open year-round.