Traversed Lands by Thomas Paquette
on display in the ground floor galleries
from September 18 through December 12, 2004

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Landscape painter Thomas Paquette exhibits a selection of new works, linked by their depiction of roads. Paquette works en plein air, sketching and making small gouache studies which he later reworks into larger oil paintings in his studio. Having traveled and painted all over this country, as well as Europe, Paquette comments, “Travel is the distance we need from ourselves to see the world afresh... Much of my work is the result of travels both far and near, from other continents to the canvas just a foot in front of me.”

Using traditional elements and landscape composition, Paquette depicts them without a heavy ideology, instead, they are purely homage to location. Maine Telegram arts reviewer Philip Isaacson states, “Paquette tackles them [landscape elements] with a modernist’s eye. They are of our time, informed by the realism that we expect, but unexpectedly generous.”

A native of Minneapolis, Minnesota, Paquette received his BFA in painting from Bemidji State University in northern Minnesota, and his MFA in painting from Southern Illinois University. Paquette has exhibited widely, including recent exhibitions at the Jameson Gallery of Portland, Maine; Flanders Contemporary Art in Minneapolis, and the Georgia Museum of Art in Athens. Also heavily commissioned, Paquette’s work adorns several schools, colleges and financial institutions across the country and he recently completed two paintings for the Queen Mary II Cruise Ship. A reception will be held Friday, September 24 from 7 to 9 p.m.