Gregory Dunham
AUTUMN 2021
Gregory Dunham is represented by Full Fathom Five Gallery in Eastport, Maine. Artwork is the property of the artist unless otherwise specified. All rights reserved.
Produced by Witherle Memorial Library with support from Castine Arts Association and Maine Community Foundation. Project developed by Rich Hewitt with help from Kathryn Dillon. Signatures website designed by Michelle Keyo. © Witherle Memorial Library.
Beginning very early in childhood, I would draw for enjoyment. As a first grader I lived in Norfolk, VA, with my mom and stepdad, where he was stationed in the Navy. I remember that I would draw large ships over many sheets of paper with separate cut-out sailors to people those ships. I would then invent stories and battles to go with my own navy. Shortly before his ship was scheduled to leave for Korea, we enjoyed a delicious Thanksgiving dinner onboard the ship. The following day he drove us back to Massachusetts to stay with his parents.
My favorite part of school was drawing and coloring during art period. By the time I was in the third grade, my stepdad had explained and demonstrated perspective to me. I was fascinated. I think it was in the sixth grade that he took me to the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in Boston for the first time. Everything was a feast for my eyes, but I particularly fell in love with what I recall as a hallway filled with small, very realistically rendered, Italian landscapes showing perspective in action. During one of my sixth grade art classes my teacher mentioned the drawing I was working on, and she held it up to show the class how I had portrayed distance through the use of perspective.
During my high school years, I developed a love of the Impressionists and Van Gogh. There was a small room to the side of the MFA’s Impressionist Gallery to which I would return again and again. That was the Jean-François Millet room. All of these artists and styles were instilling in me an intense interest to pursue a career in art. During my first semester in art school, a visit to the Fogg Museum at Harvard introduced me to the drawings of Ingres and the work of Charles Sheeler, which helped lead me in the direction my own art would eventually take. I was enrolled at the New England School of Art (NESA) in the ad & design program, but I was unhappy with the commercial aspect of the assignments that were required. I decided I would rather find my own muses and inspirations and left after that first semester. At the same time, I remembered how much I had loved Gloucester and Rockport from family vacations during the 50s and 60s and how intrigued I was by those coastal towns with the color and action around the docks, the smell of salt air, and, of course, the light. As soon as I could afford to leave my parents’ house, I moved to Rockport, MA, where several of the instructors I admired at NESA lived and had galleries.
At first I experimented with all kinds of styles, even trying a little abstraction. Then in 1970 I saw the big Andrew Wyeth exhibit at the MFA, and that cemented my direction. I returned home from the exhibition and immediately did a drawing that still hangs on my wall. For the next six years I concentrated solely on graphite drawings, perfecting, to what degree I could, my abilities. During that time I met Stow Wengenroth, a very famous artist and lithographer, and he became my friend and mentor. I learned a tremendous amount from him, certainly more than I could had I stayed a NESA. He encouraged me and sponsored me for membership in the Rockport Art Association, where I received an award for the first drawing that I exhibited there. In 1974, I became the youngest person to be accepted into membership at the Guild of Boston Artists.
In 1982 I was asked to be a part of a three-man cooperative gallery on Rocky Neck in Gloucester. After the first year, it became a two-man-and-one-woman gallery and during that season we added pottery by my future wife, Pat, to the mix. The following year three of us left Rocky Neck to open a gallery in Rockport, MA. Three years later Pat and I moved to Castine with our nine-month-old son, Stow, and opened the McGrath Dunham Gallery. Over the twenty years the gallery operated, we showed works by close to a hundred different artists. After closing the gallery in 2007 to devote more time to my own painting, I’ve been exhibiting at other galleries and am currently represented by Gallery B in Castine, ME; Full Fathom Five Gallery in Eastport, ME; and the Patricia Hutton Galleries in Doylestown, PA
In 1976, after six years of drawing, I began to paint to paint in both watercolor and oil. I soon realized that I felt most comfortable with watercolor. Then in 1980, in addition to watercolors and graphite drawings, I started making lithographs drawn on stone. I continued that for eight years, until the master printer I was using moved to Oregon. After that, it became inconvenient to ship heavy lithographic stones back and forth across the country. It was at that point that watercolor became my main focus and has continued so to the present day.
I started making my lithographs in 1980, using Paul M. Maguire as my master printer. His studio was located on a side street near the John Hancock tower in Boston. There were several printing studios in the building, including the Experimental Etching Studio. Paul had a supply of various sizes of lithographic stones that he loaned out to artists to make their drawings on. These stones were made from Barvarian limestone, which is incredibly dense and heavy. The face is polished down to a very smooth fine grained surface. The stone’s surface is very receptive to oil and care must be used in handling the stone. A lithograph is a planographic print, meaning the image is totally on the surface rather than as in etchings which are bit into the surface with acid or a sharp tool and are called intaglio prints. The process of lithography is based on the idea of oil and water not mixing.
In my case the drawings were made entirely with Korn’s lithographic crayons in pencil form. I bought them by the dozens in various hardnesses and sharpened them to fine points with a single edged razor blade in order to get the fine detail I desired. They are basically made from a black oily substance that the stone is very receptive to. I had to be very careful while drawing not to touch the drawing surface with my fingers, because the stone would pick that up. I placed a sheet of tracing paper on the surface to rest my hand on while drawing.
The first step is to get an outline of the image transferred to the stone by a rouge sheet. I would determine the size I wanted then make a drawing on a sheet of paper and place that on the rouge sheet and go over the lines of the drawing to make the transfer. The drawing would then be visible on the stone as a red chalk outline in reverse. The drawing on the stone needed to be backwards so that when it was printed the image would be true to the original scene. It took some getting used to drawing backwards, but shortly it became second nature. If I got confused in the process, I would hold a mirror up to it and see it as it will look after printing.
The surface of the stone is wonderful to draw on. It’s very much like drawing on paper that has a slight tooth. The difference is that the stone is very hard and the crayons wear down very rapidly. That’s why I had dozens of crayons sharpened and ready to go at the beginning of all my sessions. Depending on the amount of detail in a piece it would generally take about a month to complete my drawing on the stone. Then I would take it back to Boston to have Paul proof it. He put a wash on the stone that fixed the image and desensitized the stone. After applying a gum arabic wash the drawn area would reject the wash and pool in the areas that had not been drawn with the oily crayon. He would then ink the stone. The drawn image would accept the ink, while the areas that accepted the wash would not accept the ink. The process had to be repeated for each image.
He usually pulled 5 or six proofs from light to dark and I would choose the one I liked the best and marked it B.A.T. (for good to pull)*. Then he would print the edition based on that print. Most of my editions were limited to 50 plus 3-5 artist’s proofs.
I’ve included a Polaroid of a stone in progress, showing the crayons, a brush, the razor blades and a watercolor on the wall of the subject that would become a lithograph. I’ve also included a photo of the completed lithograph, marked B.A.T. I decided not to go ahead with the edition so only the B.A.T. and 5 artist’s Proofs were printed. The surface was ground down and prepared to be available for another artist or image.
*Bon à Tirer (B.A.T.): A print that is not included in the edition, but which indicates the standard a printer tried to duplicate for the edition. A print which is bon à tirer (translated from French as “ready to pull”) can be identified by the inscription “B.A.T.” found in the lower left-hand margin and usually remains in the printer’s possession as well as a Printer’s Proof.
A Massachusetts native, Gregory Dunham moved to Castine, Maine in 1987. He has over 50 years of experience working in watercolor, oil, graphite drawing and lithography. His works hang in collections around the world, including: The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University; Boston Public Library Print Collection; Art Bank Program, U. S. Department of State, Washington, DC; The Wilson Museum, Castine, ME; The Tides Institute and Museum of Art, Eastport, ME; MBNA Collection/Bankof America; Eastern Maine Medical Center; Lord Dunleath, Ballywalter in the County Down, Northern Ireland; Donald Sussman & Representative Chellie Pingree and Sir Nigel Elton Sheinwald, Former HM Ambassador to the United States of America, Washington, DC and London, England.
Dunham has won many awards including the Rockport Art Association’s Silver Medal. He has participated in national group and juried exhibitions since 1972 and has shown in such places as, The American Watercolor Society, The National Academy of Design, The Art Institute of Boston, University of New Hampshire, Butler Institute of American Art, Penobscot Marine Museum, The University of Maine, Hutchinson Center and the Center for Maine Contemporary Art. His professional affiliations have included, the Rockport Art Association, 1972-present, Guild of Boston Artists, and the New England Watercolor Society. He was a founding member of two cooperative galleries in Massachusetts before moving to Maine in 1987, where he and his wife founded the McGrath Dunham Gallery which operated for 19 years and represented over fifty artists. In 2006 he decided to close the gallery and work on his art full time. Dunham has served on the board of governors at the Rockport Art Assn. is a past president of the Rocky Neck Art Colony in Gloucester, MA and was a founding member and co-chair of the Castine Arts Association. He is currently represented by Full Fathom Five Gallery, Eastport, ME; Gallery-B, Castine, ME and Patricia Hutton Galleries, Doylestown, PA.
Medium:
Watercolor, Oil, Graphite Drawing, Lithography
Collections: (selected)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
Wilson Museum, Castine, ME
Tides Institute and Museum of Art, Eastport, ME
Boston Public Library, Boston, MA
Art Bank Program, U.S. Department of State, Washington, D.C.
Sir Nigel Elton Sheinwald, HM Ambassador to the United States of America, Washington, DC/London, UK
Lord Dunleath, Ballywalter, County of Down, Northern Ireland
Donald Sussman and Rep. Chellie Pingree, North Haven, ME
MBNA, New England, Belfast, ME
Bank of America, Newark, DE
Bank of Boston, Boston, MA
Rockport National Bank, Rockport, MA
Kidder Peabody, New York, NY
Eastern Maine Medical Center, Bangor, ME
Maine Maritime Academy, Castine, ME
Instrumentation Laboratory, Lexington, MA
Cardiovascular Surgical Associates, Chicago, IL
Castine Unitarian Church, Castine, ME
Collections: (selected)
Charles E. Smith Corp., Washington, D.C.
Pharos Data Corp., New York, NY
Marshalls Inc., Bedford, MA
Wakefield Corp., Wakefield, MA
Charles Leighton, CML Group, Inc., Acton, MA
Norman McGrath, New York, NY
J. Seward Johnson, Princeton, NJ
Mark Salter, Alexandria, VA
Dr. John Hallett & Dr. Linda Austin, Charleston, SC & Castine, ME
Merlin and Susan Olsen, San Marino, CA
Jennifer Bicks, Los Angeles, CA & Castine, ME
Mr. John Speredakos & Jaqui Lividini, New York, NY
Represented in over 1,000 private collections throughout the U.S., Canada, UK, Germany, Holland, Ireland, Brazil & India
Group Shows: (selected)
“An Ordinary Day: Seeing the Unseen”, University of Maine, Hutchinson Center, Belfast, ME, Feb. - May 2016 Second Juried summer Exhibition, Rockport Art Association, June-July, 2016
“The Art of the Boat”, Penobscot Marine Museum, Searsport, ME, May 28 - October 23, 2011
Tarratine Gallery, Castine, ME, 2011, 2012, 2013
3rd Annual "44N 69W: Radius Belfast", Åarhus Gallery, Belfast, ME 2011, 2013, 2014 “Painting the Maine Waterfront”, Penobscot Marine Museum, Searsport, ME 2009
Group Shows: (contunued)
“95th Anniversary Exhibition", Guild of Boston Artists, Boston, MA 2009
“Maine Artists and the Figure”, Courthouse Gallery, Ellsworth, ME 2009
“The Art of Monhegan”, Dowling Walsh Gallery, Rockland, ME 2008, 2009
“Awards Show”, Guild of Boston Artists, Boston, MA 2008
“The Circle” Invitational, The Belfast Framer, Belfast, ME 2008
“Island Light II, Paintings of Monhegan Island”, Banks Gallery, Portsmouth, NH 2007
“A Sense of Place, from Castine to Corea” Courthouse Gallery, Ellsworth, ME 2007
“Life on the Water”, The Guild of Boston Artists, Boston, MA 2007
“The 18 Miles, Paintings of the New Hampshire Seacoast”, Banks Gallery, Portsmouth, NH 2007
"Drawn to an Island, paintings of Monhegan Island", McGrath Dunham Gallery, Castine, ME 2004
"Old & New Scotland", Gregory Dunham & William Irvine, McGrath Dunham Gallery, Castine, ME 2002
"Cornwall" Gregory Dunham & William Irvine, McGrath Dunham Gallery, Castine, ME 2001
"The Railroad Today", McGrath Dunham Gallery, Castine, ME 1999
"Early Light, Late Light", McGrath Dunham Gallery, Castine, ME 1996
“Contemporary Still Life ”, McGrath Dunham Gallery, Castine, ME 1996
“ Working Harbors, Working Boats ”, McGrath Dunham Gallery, Castine, ME 1995
“Summer in Maine”, Francesca Anderson Gallery, Lexington, MA 1995
“Small Works”, Union of Maine Visual Artists, Ellsworth, ME 1995
“Architecture in Maine Landscape”, Bayview Gallery, Camden, ME 1994
“Beyond Tradition, Six Painters From Castine”, Union of Maine Visual Artists, Ellsworth, ME 1993
“Scenes of All Seasons”, Central Place Galleries, Bangor, ME 1990
“Three Views”, Peel Gallery, Danby, Vt. 1986
“The Corners of New England”, Gallerie Fotene, Boston, MA 1986
“Drawing Show”, Francesca Anderson Gallery, Boston, MA 1985
Group Shows: (contunued)
“A Visual Experience, Six New England Artists”, Gallery Fotene, Boston, MA 1985
“Summer Scenes”, Francesca Anderson Gallery, Boston, MA 1984
“A Fresh Dozen”, Peel Gallery, Danby, VT 1984
"Spaces", Demetra Gallery, Cambridge, MA 1984
National Group and Juried Exhibitions: (selected)
New England Watercolor Society Annual Exhibition, Boston, MA 2004, ‘03, ‘98, ‘94, ‘93
12th, 15th & 16th Annual Juried Exhibitions, Maine Coast Artists, Rockport, ME 1994, ‘93, ‘90
"America in Paint and Bronze Invitational", Missouri Athletic Club, St. Louis, MO 1993, ‘90
"Works on Paper", Union of Maine Visual Artists, Portland, ME 1992
"There’s No Place Like Home", The Langley Boardman House, Portsmouth, NH; curated by Mary Harding 1992 “Impressions", Creative Arts Workshop, New Haven, CT. Juror: Gabor Peterdi, professor emeritus, Yale University School of Art. 1990
34th National Print Exhibition, Hunterdon Art Center, Clinton, NJ 1990
The Poldi Hirsch Memorial Invitational, East Coast Artists Cooperative, Havre de Grace, MD 1990 The Printed Image, Graham Horstman Gallery, Denton, TX 1990
Boston Printmakers 41st North American Print Exhibition, The Art Institute of Boston, Boston, MA Juror: Clifford Ackley, curator of prints and drawings, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. 1989
Hudson Valley ’89, Mid Hudson Arts and Science Center, Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Juror: Frank H. Goodyear, president, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. 1989
16th Juried Exhibition and Invitational Print Show, The Print Club of Albany, Albany, NY
National Art League 59th Annual Open Juried Art Exhibition, Douglaston, NY 1989
America in Paint and Bronze “89” Invitational, Missouri Athletic Club, St. Louis, MO 1989
National Group and Juried Exhibitions: (continued)
National Works on Paper Competition, Firehouse Gallery, Nassau Community College, Garden City, NY; Jurors: Audrey Isseibacher, curator of prints and drawings, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY.; Terry Dintenfass, director, Terry Dintenfass Gallery, New York, NY 1988
Figuratively: Contemporary Drawings from New England, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 1984
14th National Print Exhibition, Silvermine Guild Center for the Arts, Silvermine, CT 1983
American Watercolor Society 116th Annual Exhibition, New York, NY 1983
“Works of Art on Paper”, Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH 1983
157th Annual Exhibition, National Academy of Design, New York, NY 1982
Second Annual Art Exhibit, Wisteriahurst Museum, Holyoke, MA 1981
Salmagundi Club Annual Nonmembers Exhibition, New York, NY 1980
The Mood of New England, The Copley Society, Boston, MA;
Jurors: Charles B. Ferguson, director, New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT; Bartlett Harding Hayes, director emeritus, Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA, director emeritus, The American Academy of Rome, Rome, Italy; Theodore Stebbins, curator of American paintings, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA 1980
New England Drawing Competition, DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, Mass. Jurors: Robert Doty, director, Currier Gallery of American Art, Manchester, NH; Meredyth Moses, director, Clark Gallery, Lincoln; MA, Frederick P. Walkey, director, DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA 1979
Academic Artists Association, Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, MA 1976
Awards: (selected)
Winifred Jackman Hibbard Memorial Award for Excellence in Watercolor, 4th Summer Show, Rockport Art Association, 2019
John P. Manship Memorial Prize, 2nd Summer Show, Rockport Art Association, Rockport, MA 2011
Lydia & Chester Roberts Award for an Outstanding Traditional Work of Art, Rockport Art Association, Rockport, MA 2011
Amee B. Davis Memorial Award for Excellence in Painting, 2nd Summer Show, Rockport Art Association, Rockport, MA 2009
John F. & Margaret Kieran Award for Landscape Painting 3rd Summer Show, Rockport Art Association, Rockport, MA 2009
Lydia & Chester Roberts Award for an Outstanding Traditional Work of Art, Rockport Art Association, Rockport, MA 2009
Amee B. Davis Memorial Award for Excellence in Painting, Rockport Art Association, Rockport, MA 2004
William Meyerowitz Memorial Award”, Rockport Art Association, Rockport, MA 1998
Amee B. Davis Memorial Award, Rockport Art Association, Rockport, MA 1997
Garie & Kenneth Perry Award for Excellence in Painting, RAA, Rockport, MA 1997
John Wentworth Memorial Award, Rockport Art Association, Rockport, MA 1994
Guild of Boston Artists Award, New England Watercolor Society, Boston, MA 1994
John Cooley Memorial Award, Rockport Art Association, Rockport, MA 1993
Silver Medal, George O. Davis Memorial Award, Rockport Art Association, Rockport, MA 1991
Guild of Boston Artists Award, New England Watercolor Society, Boston, MA 1990
Stow Wengenroth Memorial Award, Rockport Art Association, Rockport, MA 1990
Thelma A. Karr Memorial Award, Rockport Art Association, Rockport, MA 1989
James Russell Goldsmith Award for Excellence in Graphics, RAA, Rockport, MA 1988
First Prize, Figurative Drawings from New England, University Galleries, University of New Hampshire; 1984
Gallery Affiliations and Representatives:
Courthouse Gallery Fine Art, Ellsworth, ME
Gallery-B., Castine, ME
Patricia Hutton Galleries, Doylestown, PA
Solo Shows:
Courthouse Gallery, Ellsworth, ME, 2008, 2010, 2023
Artemis Gallery, Northeast Harbor, ME, 2013, 2014
Wilson Museum Education Center, Aug. - Sept., 2014
Guild of Boston Artists, Boston, MA 1976, 80-88, 91, 92
Rockport Art Association, Rockport, MA 1974, 78, 81, 85, 88, 92
Main Street Gallery, Nantucket, MA 1976-86
Gallerie Fotene, Boston, MA 1985-88
Also Exhibited:
Academic Artists Association, Springfield, MA
Annisquam Invitational, Annisquam, MA
Art Association of Newport, Newport, RI
Art Research Associates, South Hamilton, MA
Banks Gallery, Portsmouth, NH 2007 -2010
Also Exhibited: (continued)
Barn Gallery, Ogunquit, ME
Bayview Gallery, Camden, ME
Cambron and Black Gallery, Beaufort, NC
Center and Main Gallery, Gloucester, MA
Central Place Galleries, Bangor, MA
Charter Oak Gallery, Fairfield, CT
Clark Gallery, Lincoln, MA
Coastal Gallery, Half Moon Bay, CA
Castine Historical Society, Castine, ME
Concord Art Association, Concord, MA
Dowling Walsh Gallery, Rockland, ME 2007 - 2010
Eierweiss Gallery, New Haven, CT
Francesca Anderson Gallery, Boston, MA
Gallery Sixty-Eight, Belfast, ME
Ginsburg Hallowell Fine Arts, Boston, MA
gWatson Gallery, Stonington, ME 2007
Headlands Gallery, Rockport, MA
Hermine Meril Smith Fine Art, Martha’s Vineyard, MA
J. Todd Gallery, Wellesley, MA
London Ventures Co., Rockport, MA
McGrath Dunham Gallery, Castine, ME 1988 - 2006
Main Street Gallery, Nantucket, MA
Mary Bryan Memorial Gallery and Art Center, Jeffersonville, VT
Ogunquit Art Center, Ogunquit, ME
Also Exhibited: (continued)
Peel Gallery, Danby, VT
Prentengalerie, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Shaw Gallery, Northeast Harbor, ME 2005 - 2006
Sunne Savage Gallery, Winchester, MA
Tenison House Gallery, Dallas, TX
The Fine Print, Gloucester, MA
Thomas Segal Gallery, Boston, MA
Wenniger Graphics, Boston, Mass., Rockport, MA and Provincetown, MA
Gallery 4, Alexandria, VA
North Shore Arts Association, Gloucester, MA
Professional Affiliations:
Rockport Art Association, Rockport, MA, 1972 -present
Guild of Boston Artists, Boston, MA,1974 - 2009
Maine Center for Contemporary Art, Rockport, ME, 2007 - 2015
New England Watercolor Society, Boston, MA, 1987 -2009
Union of Maine Visual Artists, South Portland, ME, 1990 -2009
The Print Club of Albany, Albany, NY, 1990-96
American Print Alliance, Washington, DC, 1994-95
Copley Society, Boston, MA 1971-1974
Education:
Mostly self taught, 1965-present
New England School of Art, Boston, MA, 1964-65
Massachusetts Bay Community College, Boston & Watertown, MA, 1965-67
Independent Study, France and Spain, 1971, 73; Cornwall and Devon UK, 1999; Ireland, 2006; Tuscany, Italy 2015
Teaching:
Foundation Drawing, Maine Maritime Academy, Castine, ME, 2002
Basic Drawing, Rockport Art Association, Rockport, MA, 1982-83
Watercolor, Substitute Instructor, Gloucester High School Continuing Education Program, Gloucester, MA, 1983
Private Instruction, Basic Drawing, Rockport, MA, 1979-80
Reviews and Articles:
“Art of Acadia”, watercolor featured on page 225, by David and Carl Little, Published by Down East Books
“Artists of the Working Waterfront” article by Carl Little, Maine Boats, Harbors & Homes: May 2009
“Annual Artist Listing” 84 of Maine’s Most Intriguing Artists, Maine Home & Design: April 2009
Monhegan Island, Island Light, Blue Tree Publishing, 2007, Introduction by Jan Bailey, painting illustrated pg. 65, 2007
“Gregory Dunham: A Sense of Place”, Catalog essay by Karin Wilkes, Director, Courthouse Gallery, 2008
“Castine watercolorist enjoys blossoming career”, Interview by Justin Pollard, September 17, Castine Patriot 1998 “Watercolor 94”, Summer Issue, American Artists Magazine, Lives In Art, by Stanly Marcus 1994
Preview, (Ellsworth, ME) June 25; interviewed by Nancy P. Alexander 1993
Art New England; June/July; review of show at Ellsworth Library; Beyond Tradition: Six Painters from Castine; reviewed by Carl Little 1993
Maine Sunday Telegram, June 13; review of Maine Coast Artists 15th Annual Juried Exhibition 1993
Bar Harbor Times; (March) review by Nan Lincoln 1993
Bay Register/ Penobscot Bay Press, watercolor reproduced on cover 1992
Castine Patriot, January 11, overview 1990
Gloucester (MA) Daily Times, two-page article with photographs. 1983
Christian Science Monitor, review of show at Guild of Boston Artists. 1976
Rockport (MA) Eagle, review of show at Rockport Art Association. 1973