SOUTH PORTLAND — Painter Francine Schrock taped a handwritten note to her fridge: “Paint with reckless abandon!!”
Additional Photos
She followed that command to the point of exhaustion to prepare for her current exhibition.
This month, Schrock teams with sculptor Patrick Plourde of New Gloucester for a joint exhibition at the Gallery at Harmon’s & Barton’s floral shop in Portland. She exhibits more than a dozen mostly new paintings, and Plourde shows a grouping of sculptures. The artists collaborated on two pieces. She painted two round coffee table tops, and he fabricated the steel structures that hold the tops in place.
This is Schrock’s second exhibition in two months, and the fourth consecutive summer she has shown at Harmon’s & Barton’s. As was the case last summer, this show focuses on Portland scenes. Thus the title of the exhibition, “The Portland Show II.”
The showpiece of the dozen-plus paintings is an oversized canvas called “Maine Wharf.” It is a representational oil-on-canvas painting of the Portland waterfront from the perspective of the water. Measuring nearly 6 feet tall and more than 5 feet across, it shows the pilings, buildings and commerce-related activities that occur on the structure known as Maine Wharf, which is just downriver from the Casco Bay Ferry Lines terminal.
“I wanted to do a big painting so that when you stand in front of it, its size encompasses your whole field of vision and you feel like you are there. I wanted something that had real impact,” she said.
She got the idea for the painting a year ago, when her parents came up from Massachusetts for a visit over the Fourth of July. It was a gorgeous summer day, and Schrock took her parents on the ferry’s mail boat run. As the ferry maneuvered from its berth, Schrock was struck by the scene in front of her.
“I just found it all so fascinating,” she said. “I’ve seen the wharf many times before, but something struck me that day. I was impressed by the architecture of the wharf. These pillars are supporting this structure where people live and work every day. There is no foundation or anything like that, just these pillars in the mud that support this huge structure. It was really quite impressive.”
Schrock had a camera with her — she always has her camera with her, it seems — and snapped off a bunch of frames. Her painting is a composite view of the wharf.
In the foreground, she presents the structure of the ferry dock, with its own pilings emerging from the blue-green of mid-tide like a creature from the deep. Barnacles and seaweed drip from the angled wooden structure, which is held together by nuts and bolts. The focus of her view is the wharf in the background, which runs the width of the painting. The wharf supports eight or 10 cars, and at least four separate buildings. There is a solitary human figure in the scene, a tiny blip of a man standing on a deck about to enter one of the buildings, although the trace of human activity is evident across the canvas.
High in the background, Schrock represents Portland’s cityscape.
In fine detail, the painting captures the mood, spirit and essence of the city. By focusing on the activity of the waterfront, Schrock reminds us of Portland’s working waterfront heritage and present-day activity, as well as its energy and grit. The buildings in the background — the hotels, the banks — place Portland in the context of the 21st century. The Custom House gives us a sense of the city’s history.
For this batch of paintings, Schrock worked in oil on canvas exclusively. For her last Portland show a year ago, she painted oil-on-panel. She likes the smooth surface of the panel, but also appreciates the texture of canvas. She moves easily between surfaces.
Schrock, 45, has been painting for many years now. She graduated from the Maine College of Art, spent several years in the Midwest and returned to Maine in 2007. Since her return, she’s pursued the life of an artist with vigor. She paints all the time, despite holding down a part-time job.
Rather than wait to find a gallery to represent her, she doggedly pursues alternative venues where she can show her work, such as the gallery at Harmon’s & Barton’s. Two weeks ago, she closed a show at the Salt Exchange restaurant on Portland’s Commercial Street that featured her abstract work.
As much as Schrock enjoys representational painting, she feels a strong pull to the abstract, as well. For her abstract work, she fills her surfaces with blocks of color, which play off each other in moody planes. She calls these paintings “mindscapes, meditations, free-from narrative, drama and story. They are about color, its purity, and how it is experienced by the viewer. My hope is that upon viewing these pieces the drama and stories of life dissolve, and what emerges is a sense of peace and presence.”
Many people have told her that she should commit to one style or another, but Schrock isn’t interested in giving up either. She loves both, and enjoys the challenge of moving freely between them, often simultaneously.
The abstract paintings come out of her subconscious, whereas the representational work is time- and space-specific.
Seated at her kitchen table, Schrock scoffs at the idea that she needs to focus on any one thing. She’s never done anything by the book, and doesn’t intend to start now.
As long as she is working, she’s happy. As she talks, she glances over her shoulder at the sign taped to her fridge. Her motto — “Paint with reckless abandon!!” — has worked well enough up to now.
Staff Writer Bob Keyes can be contacted at 791-6457 or at:
bkeyes@pressherald.com
Follow him on Twitter at:
twitter.com/pphbkeyes
Send questions/comments to the editors.
