FARMINGTON — An opening reception for an exhibition of the artistry of J. Thomas R. Higgins takes place from 3 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 8, at the Emery Community Arts Center Flex-Space Gallery on the campus of the University of Maine at Farmington.
The reception is sponsored by the arts center and is free and open to the public. The exhibit is titled Paint and Perception and is on display until Oct. 10. Hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m Monday through Friday and noon to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sundays.
Higgins recently concluded a 32-year teaching career at UMF.
“This show will span 48 years of my life as a painter — 38 years of it responding to the landscape of Maine,” he said.
While growing up in Pennsylvania, exposure to regional landscape painters influenced him.
“What I saw in their work was magical to me, and it formed the way I viewed and related to my surroundings,” he said. Their renderings were of uncluttered landscape scenes.
After formal art studies, traveling abroad and spending the past 38 years getting to know the scenic wonders of Maine, Higgins has increasingly taken on views that are visually complex and challenging. For the most part, the paintings are done at one time and on site so as to capture the spontaneity that comes from responding to direct sensory experience, he said.
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