Author: Lori Schafer

The first new art show of the 2026 season at Bartlett Woods Retirement Community opens on Friday, March 20th, with a reception from 4-6pm. “CHICKADEES, ALLIGATORS AND STONEHENGE” will feature contemporary works by painters Janice Kasper and Cicely Aikman, and photographer Dirk McDonnell.  Open to the public, the exhibition will run through August 28, 2026. Located at 20 Bartlett Drive (just off Talbot Avenue between Broadway and Old County Road), the non-profit retirement community continues its commitment to its Art at Bartlett Program through hosting this new exhibition, (on loan from Caldbeck Gallery). Free and open to the public, Sun-Fri, 8am to 5pm.

About the Artists:

Cicely Aikman (American 1923-2013). Born in Texas, where she lived until the age of six, Aikman spent her childhood in Los Angeles – a child of the west – before going to high school in Washington D.C. She studied at the Corcoran School of Fine Arts (1938-40), the University of Chicago (1940-42), and the Art Student League with mentor Morris Cantor (1942-1946). Aikman reflected “This was a serious art education – our only regret was that due to World War ll, we could not go to Europe, in particular to Paris to see, first-hand, the works of Picasso and Matisse.”

After the war, Aikman traveled to Italy by boat with her young son, Paul, and lived in bohemian circles with others, drawn like Aikman, to the cultural life in Rome, Paris and elsewhere. Back in New York, Aikman began showing her work along with her downtown peers, among them Lois Dodd, Rudy Burkhardt and Gretna Campbell at the Pyramid Gallery. In the forties and fifties, Aikman painted winters in the city and summers in Provincetown, MA. She exhibited in New York with Green Mountain Gallery, the Blue Mountain Gallery, the Artists’ Gallery, the Westbeth Gallery, and with the Provincetown Art Association, while raising her son and holding down a series of jobs. She moved to Maine in 1973 with her second husband, Fred Scherer, whom she had met through her work at the Museum of Natural History in New York. Aikman began to show at Caldbeck Gallery in 1990. Her work has been exhibited in numerous galleries and museums, including the Farnsworth Art Museum, The Portland Museum of Art, the Center for Maine Contemporary Art and Roundtop Center for the Arts. Her work “January”, was included in WINTER IN MAINE by Carl Little, published by Down East Books. Aikman maintained a vigorous studio practice, splitting her time between Friendship, Maine and the Indian River in Florida. In 2005, Aikman and Scherer moved to Brattleboro, Vermont where they continued to live and work until 2013. https://www.cicelyaikman.com/

Janice Kasper “My work is directly related to my growing concern over the protection of wildlife and wild lands in Maine” – Janice Kasper

Janice Kasper paints powerfully simple, dramatic oils that represent the repullulating intrusion of man and his technologies upon nature. D. Dominick Lombardi wrote in the New York Times on 09/27/00 that Janice Kasper “can be loosely described as Georgia O’Keeffe with a cause”. Her poignant sense of irony adds an aura of accessibility to her work. Kasper has a BFA in Painting from the University of Connecticut. She has studied with the Artist-in-Residence at Unity College (Leonard Craig) and at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Her work is in collections around the country, including the Portland Museum of Art in Portland, ME, the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, ME, and the Hitchcock Collection at the University of Maine at Presque Isle. A few of her most recent solo and group exhibitions include the O’Farrell Gallery formerly of Brunswick, ME, the Katonah Museum of Art in Katonah, NY, and the L.C. Bates Museum in Hinckley, ME. She received several grants including an Artist Resource Trust Grant, a Maine Percent for Art commission and a Good Idea Grant from the Maine Arts Commission. She has been with the Caldbeck Gallery in Rockland since 1993. Kasper has been published in 8 books and museum catalogues. In 2007, Janice received an artist-in-residence position at Denali National Park in Alaska. She was an artist-in-Residence at Isle Royale National Park in 2009.

Dirk McDonnell (American 1952- 2021)  Dirk McDonnell started photographing in the mid-80s with his 35mm camera when he travelled extensively through Mexico. His “historiographic photographs have clarity, emotional depth and edge”, wrote Philip Isaacson in the Maine Sunday Telegram.

McDonnell also traveled to photograph life in a number of disparate places, including Turkey, Holland, England, Italy, France, Ireland, and China. He also concentrated on photographing the Maine landscape in winter, usually working with a large format camera which enabled him to manipulate the image while shooting.  He is also represented by Robert Klein Gallery in Boston. Later, McDonnell photographed in Argentina, Death Valley and the Isle of Skye. He worked with digital media.  He is in the permanent collection of the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, ME,  The Georgia O’Keefe Museum in Santa Fe, NM, the Portland Museum of Art, Bravo Center, Oaxaca, Mexico, The Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL, Colby College Art Museum, The Norma Marin Collection at Smith Wellesley, the University of Maine, Machias, ME, the Bruce Brown Collection at the Portland Museum of Art and the New Orleans Museum of Art. McDonnell showed at Colby College in Waterville, the University of New England at Westbrook College, the University of Maine at Machias, at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, formerly  in Rockport, ME and at 162 Gallery, Rockport ME.  McDonnell’s work can also be seen at www.dirkmcdonnell.net

For further information at the artists, contact: Caldbeck Gallery, 12 Elm Street, Rockland, Maine 04841 tel 207.594.5935  info@caldbeck.com.