Winslow Homer

PORTLAND, Maine — Winslow Homer died 100 years ago. The Portland Museum of Art, which is 12 miles from Prouts Neck, where Homer spent the fertile second half of his career, is marking the centenary with a small but captivating display of Homer’s paintings, prints, and drawings, all drawn from the museum’s collection. Given Homer’s preeminence in American art and his abiding popularity, which seems to unite both conservative and avant-garde tastes with its full-throated and enduring freshness, it is surprising that the centenary is not being marked by a more ambitious loan exhibition.

By Jessica Bartlett, Town correspondent Hingham's South Street Gallery will again host "Art Appraisal Day" this Saturday, with professional art appraiser Arthur Garrity. A successful event in the past, the event gives visitors the chance to have Garrity appraise one piece of artwork for $10, or three for $25. There is a limit of three appraisal items per customer per visit. Etchings, prints, or origioal oil or watercolor paintings may be submitted for review. All the proceeds will be donated to the Salvation Army.

CAMBRIDGE -- Like pale jewels glinting in the light, the first works you see when you step into "American Watercolors and Pastels, 1875-1950" are Edward Hopper watercolors: "Highland Light" (1930), "Cold Storage Plant" (1933), and "Jenness House, Truro" (1934). The intimate and sparkling exhibition, up at the Fogg Art Museum, highlights Harvard University's rich collection of watercolors and pastels, from Winslow Homer to Willem de Kooning, with a few loans to flesh out the show.

WORCESTER - The Worcester Art Museum, which has one of the nation's great collections, is entering a period of momentous change after many years of relative stability. That stability, personified by its beloved director James A. Welu, who has worked at the museum since 1974 (as director since 1986) has served the 115-year-old museum well: Welu's contributions, both to the institution and the city, have been immense. But Welu announced his retirement in September last year. And although no one wants to come even close to criticizing him, many are privately hoping that the imminent leadership...

By Jessica Bartlett, Town correspondent Hingham's South Street Gallery will again host "Art Appraisal Day" this Saturday, with professional art appraiser Arthur Garrity. A successful event in the past, the event gives visitors the chance to have Garrity appraise one piece of artwork for $10, or three for $25. There is a limit of three appraisal items per customer per visit. Etchings, prints, or origioal oil or watercolor paintings may be submitted for review. All the proceeds will be donated to the Salvation Army.

WORCESTER - The Worcester Art Museum, which has one of the nation's great collections, is entering a period of momentous change after many years of relative stability. That stability, personified by its beloved director James A. Welu, who has worked at the museum since 1974 (as director since 1986) has served the 115-year-old museum well: Welu's contributions, both to the institution and the city, have been immense. But Welu announced his retirement in September last year. And although no one wants to come even close to criticizing him, many...

WILLIAMSTOWN -- "At present and for some time past, I see no reason why I should paint any pictures," wrote Winslow Homer in 1893. "P.S. I will paint for money at any time. Any subjects, any size. " Homer was a masterful artist, and a versatile one, experimenting across media and deepening his work over time; if he wasn't painting oils, he was making watercolors or prints. "Winslow Homer: Making Art, Making History," an exhibition of the Clark Art Institute's substantive Homer collection, attests to that.

When most people visualize Gloucester, they imagine a fisherman casting his nets, or the white sands of Good Harbor Beach, or the excitement of spotting a whale as it rises from the ocean’s depths. Now, thanks to many active artists and art organizations, Gloucester is on its way to reestablishing its reputation as a center for the arts. The city made the grade as a popular arts destination in an article appearing in the summer edition of AmericanStyle magazine. Gloucester was ranked third in the small-city category with other cities that had a population below 100,000.

Don’t let a little nip in the air deter you from catching the last vestiges of foliage before all the leaves fall. Grab a jacket and take a riverwalk in Vermont, stroll a beach on Long Island Sound, hike the rugged Maine shoreline where Winslow Homer loved to sketch, or revisit a suburban jaunt in the woods run by Mass. Audubon. Sample one of these and you’ve earned your mug of hot apple cider: CLIFF WALK Prouts Neck, Maine This small town has changed little since Homer painted every nook and cranny of these shores from 1883 to 1910.

PORTLAND, Maine - Fine art museums can be heavy and intimidating or, like the Portland Museum of Art, they can be light, airy places of inspiration and discovery. While not designed specifically for children, it says a lot about the place that youngsters and teens appear to be as immersed in its exhibits as the adults are. "Our goal is to get kids, and all our visitors, to slow down," said Stacy Rodenberger, coordinator of school programs. "We want people to see what's happening in a work of art and talk about it. " Maine's largest and oldest public art...

When most people visualize Gloucester, they imagine a fisherman casting his nets, or the white sands of Good Harbor Beach, or the excitement of spotting a whale as it rises from the ocean’s depths. Now, thanks to many active artists and art organizations, Gloucester is on its way to reestablishing its reputation as a center for the arts. The city made the grade as a popular arts destination in an article appearing in the summer edition of AmericanStyle magazine. Gloucester was ranked third in the small-city category with other cities that had a population below 100,000.

Don’t let a little nip in the air deter you from catching the last vestiges of foliage before all the leaves fall. Grab a jacket and take a riverwalk in Vermont, stroll a beach on Long Island Sound, hike the rugged Maine shoreline where Winslow Homer loved to sketch, or revisit a suburban jaunt in the woods run by Mass. Audubon. Sample one of these and you’ve earned your mug of hot apple cider: CLIFF WALK Prouts Neck, Maine This small town has changed little since Homer painted every nook and cranny of these shores from 1883 to 1910.

PORTLAND, Maine — Winslow Homer died 100 years ago. The Portland Museum of Art, which is 12 miles from Prouts Neck, where Homer spent the fertile second half of his career, is marking the centenary with a small but captivating display of Homer’s paintings, prints, and drawings, all drawn from the museum’s collection. Given Homer’s preeminence in American art and his abiding popularity, which seems to unite both conservative and avant-garde tastes with its full-throated and enduring freshness, it is surprising that the centenary is not being marked by a more...

CAMBRIDGE -- Like pale jewels glinting in the light, the first works you see when you step into "American Watercolors and Pastels, 1875-1950" are Edward Hopper watercolors: "Highland Light" (1930), "Cold Storage Plant" (1933), and "Jenness House, Truro" (1934). The intimate and sparkling exhibition, up at the Fogg Art Museum, highlights Harvard University's rich collection of watercolors and pastels, from Winslow Homer to Willem de Kooning, with a few loans to flesh out the show.

WILLIAMSTOWN -- "At present and for some time past, I see no reason why I should paint any pictures," wrote Winslow Homer in 1893. "P.S. I will paint for money at any time. Any subjects, any size. " Homer was a masterful artist, and a versatile one, experimenting across media and deepening his work over time; if he wasn't painting oils, he was making watercolors or prints. "Winslow Homer: Making Art, Making History," an exhibition of the Clark Art Institute's substantive Homer collection, attests to that.

WASHINGTON — The image of two farm boys resting in a field, a quiet moment emblematic of 19th-century rural America, creates a sense of nostalgia via a 44-cent postage stamp being released today. The stamp, the latest in the Postal Service’s American Treasures series, features Winslow Homer’s 1874 painting “Boys in a Pasture,’’ on display at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. Homer’s work largely focuses on landscapes and scenes of American life. It is Homer’s third painting to be featured on a US postage stamp.

NEW LONDON, N.H. — Donald Coonley, a professor of humanities and communication studies at Colby-Sawyer College and an Emmy winner, has died at age 68. Mr. Coonley, of New London, died of heart complications June 8 at a Lebanon hospital. He taught from 1989 to 2008 at Colby-Sawyer, where he developed a video production program and launched a community radio station, WSCS-FM. He had previously won an Emmy from the New England Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for producing the television version of his play “Windcrossing,’’...