BRUNSWICK – Coleman Burke Gallery will open its third exhibition, “Piper Cub,” a sculptural installation by artist Mark Wethli, Saturday, Sept. 15.

Best known for his work in painting and public art, the exhibition represents Wethli’s first venture into three dimensions – a full-scale wooden sculpture of a Piper Cub, one of the earliest and most popular light planes.

Wethli is the A. LeRoy Greason Professor of Art at Bowdoin College.

“The inspiration for this piece came from two sources,” Wethli said in a prepared statement. “The space and character of Coleman Burke Gallery, which reminded me of an airplane hangar, and also a personal connection to aviation and to the Piper Cub in particular – my father restored one from the ground up when I was 5 or 6 years old. Watching him restore it and then flying with him were a wonderful part of my early years.”

“As soon as I had the idea of building an airplane, the idea of using that plane was automatic,” he said in a prepared statement. “I also like the Cub because its design is so quintessential – its look and shape just say ‘airplane’ to me, at least in terms of private planes. Maybe it’s my personal history with Piper Cubs, but it has a warm and gentle look about it – as well as a human scale – that give it a lot of personality.”

To build his plane, Wethli drew blueprints based on sources from the Internet, photographs, firsthand research at local airports and a one-fifth scale model of the plane that he built at the beginning of the summer. “I built model planes when I was a kid, but needed a refresher on how things went together,” he said.

Based on this information, he began building the plane in June. Wethli also chose to display the plane in raw wood, without its typical fabric covering (with its signature bright yellow coloring), so that the structure and sculptural forms of the plane would be foremost.

The opening reception for “Piper Cub” is from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 14, coinciding with Brunswick’s Second Friday Artwalk – and, coincidentally, the Great State of Maine Airshow.

Coleman Burke Gallery is at Fort Andross, 14 Maine St. Gallery hours are noon to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. The show runs until Nov. 3.