Take a close look at Andrew Wyeth’s watercolor titled “Eastman’s Brook.”

On the surface of the painting, you might notice real blades of grass, tiny debris from the ground where the artist stood.

“I’ve often wondered when I look at it, did he just flip the watercolor when it was really wet with paint over on its face and then start another one?” said Amy Morey, collection manager of the Andrew & Betsy Wyeth Study Center. “Or did he intentionally put these inclusions in?”

Morey included this painting in a new exhibition at the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland of 26 paintings by Wyeth. Wyeth made these works in a secluded landscape and an abandoned house near the Goose River in Cushing. Fifteen of them have never been exhibited before, and they reveal a place that inspired the artist for decades.

The land where Wyeth painted is private and not open to the public. But just 4 miles away is the Goose River Peace Corps Preserve, owned by the Midcoast Conservancy. Visitors on these trails could still get a sense of the quiet environment that Wyeth’s wife Betsy once called his “secret subject.”

“Andrew Wyeth was inspired by that area for a reason, and it’s the same reason we’re inspired today,” said Morganne Price, the Medomak regional stewardship manager at Midcoast Conservancy.

A SECRET SPOT

Wyeth first found the abandoned Hoffses House in 1945. The family that owned the property had shuttered the home a few years earlier.

“He experimented and found a window or two, I think,” Morey said.

Inside, he found the table set, the beds made and the closets full. He started painting these scenes, eerie and intimate. He was so taken with it, Morey said, that he even considered renting it at one point.

“It became his secret, his private place that he didn’t share with too many people except his wife,” Morey said.

Until he invited Life magazine photographer Kosti Ruohomaa along for one of his visits, that is. (The original article from July 1953 is on view alongside the exhibition.)

The house eventually fell into disrepair and was demolished. But Wyeth continued to paint the surrounding landscape, carrying his watercolors with him and documenting the natural beauty.

“His usual practice was exploring and thinking and sitting outside and bringing his equipment with him and sitting there and producing,” Morey said.

He kept coming back for 58 years until 2003, creating hundreds of watercolors and drawings there. The house also informed four major tempera paintings. The exhibition includes those studies for larger works not on display, including “The Intruder.” In that painting, Wyeth’s dog stares into the distant forest at something unseen.

Morey wondered: Who is the intruder in this secret spot?

A WILD PLACE

Price spent her childhood on the banks of the Goose River in Waldoboro. She loves the river otters who create tiny tracks in the snow in the winter and the trilliums and bluebells that bloom in the spring.

“That’s where I grew up and fell in love with nature and water quality and natural resource management,” she said.

At Midcoast Conservancy, she now helps take care of these lands and trails. The nonprofit has owned the Goose River Peace Corps Preserve since 2001. The name is a tribute to the donors, a group of friends who met in Turkey during their time in the Peace Corps. They bought the 54 acres and gave it to the conservancy to ensure the land would remain wild.

Midcoast Conservancy later acquired a second parcel, connected by a trail that crosses private land. The two preserves total 98 acres and include more than 700 feet of frontage on the Goose River. They are open for low-impact recreation, such as walking, fishing and cross-country skiing. Snowmobiles are allowed on a designated trail.

The conservancy and the Farnsworth are planning to-be-announced programs related to the Wyeth exhibit, including at least one at the Goose River Peace Corps Preserve.

The natural environment — the dense woods, the rushing water, the quiet clearings — is similar to what Wyeth might have seen in his excursions.

Today, Price explores the same wilderness, her own dog often at her side.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: “Along the Goose River: Andrew Wyeth’s Secret Subject,” Farnsworth Art Museum, 16 Museum St., Rockland, through April 19.
HOURS: The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Monday through Dec. 31. The museum is closed Tuesdays. Starting Jan. 1, it is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays for the season.
ADMISSION: Admission is free for children 16 and under and Rockland residents. Students pay $10, seniors pay $18 and adults pay $20.
For more on the exhibit, visit farnsworthmuseum.org or 207-596-6457.
For more about the Goose River Peace Corps Preserve, visit midcoastconservancy.org or 207-389-5150.