Image: Philip Barter (1939-2024), Taking Up, 2021, acrylic on canvas, 36 x 48 inches. Courtesy of Courthouse Gallery Fine Art, Ellsworth, Maine
Courthouse Gallery Fine Art in Ellsworth, Maine, is presenting ‘Philip Barter: My Maine: A Retrospective’, the first retrospective devoted to the painter since his death in 2024. The exhibition opened on 14 August and runs through 10 September 2026 at the gallery, 6 Court Street, Ellsworth, ME 04605.
Barter’s work is rooted in the landscapes of Maine – its mountains, rivers, islands, harbours and fields. The exhibition listing spans work from 1986 to 2023 in oil and acrylic on canvas, board and panel, among them ‘Pair of Shags’ (1986), ‘Sunrise, Rangley Inn’ (1989), ‘Katahdin Starry Night’ (1990), ‘Objects on a Wharf’ (1998), ‘Power Line’ (2000), ‘Snowmobile’ (2011), ‘Ledges In A Blueberry Field’ (2018), ‘Wave’ (2020), ‘Red Maple’ (2021), ‘Sullivan Harbor’ (2022) and ‘Pond, Mt Katahdin’ (2023). Listed prices run from $1,500 for the small acrylic ‘Floral’ (2023) to $20,000 each for the two largest canvases, ‘Taking Up’ (2021) and ‘Ironbound Island, Eastern Side’ (2021), both acrylic on canvas at 36 by 48 inches.
The gallery frames the show through Carl Little’s account of the painter in the 2017 monograph ‘Philip Barter: Forever Maine’ (Marshall Wilkes). Little wrote that Barter “sees the geometry of a peak, the jagged coursing of woodland streams,” and that his palette “underscores his lively vision”. A 2026 exhibition catalogue is available from the gallery at $26 postage paid within the US.
The opening reception took place on Wednesday 19 August, 5–7pm. Still to come is a gallery talk on Wednesday 2 September at 5pm with the artist’s widow, Priscilla Barter, and his son, Matt Barter, who will discuss how the family helped Barter launch his career and the life the couple built for their large family.
The retrospective is one of three shows the gallery opened on 14 August and closes on 10 September, alongside Gregory Dunham’s ‘The Fading Tide’, on the disappearing clam shacks, smokehouses and skiffs of the Maine coast, and ‘A Shared Horizon’, pairing Heidi Daub and Richard Keen. The gallery, which marks its twentieth year in 2026, keeps summer hours through 15 September: Monday to Saturday 10am–5.30pm and Sunday 12–4pm.
