An exhibition ofplein airpaintings by Charles Matthew Thompson, UNE Professor of Art and founder of the UNE Department of Fine Arts, will be on view in the UNE Art Gallery, Ketchum Library, Biddeford Campus, from April 18, 2017 through August 1, 2017.

While visiting the Dyer Library in Saco, Maine, Thompson came upon a book from the turn of the 20th century, filled with black and white photographs of the Saco and Biddeford area. Fascinated by the changes that had occurred in the landscape of our community, he realized that many of these photographs were taken at locations he had visited and painted over the years and was struck by the changes that had occurred to many of these landscapes through the activity of development. The seed was planted for this visual project documenting the landscape of Saco and Biddeford as it once was and what it has now become.

Thompson selected seven locations with corresponding photographs to create a body of work completed over many months, often returning to a location numerous times to capture a light or weather condition similar to that in the original photograph. Unfortunately, the original landscapes have been largely lost to the insatiable human demand for possession and development. Time and progress stand still for no one. Now there is an historical record of the original locations and an artistic rendering of the locations as they now appear.”