The
Coast of Eden
August 2006
Artist Imero Gobbato has traveled the world, yet when he
speaks of the Maine coast, where he has lived since 1964,
he says simply: "This has become my place. My home."
Wherever he has traveled, the strong pull of the sea has
drawn him back to his heart's home in Maine and, most recently,
to his memories of the islands he explored when he first
came to live in Camden many years ago.
The paintings from The Coast
of Eden exhibition are remarkable gems of color and light,
infused with Gobbato's love of the coast he calls home.
These are places of peace and beauty: a quiet island cove
with sun-tipped surf, a shimmering schooner in a cloud-touched
sea, a cottage with a garden of wildflowers perched at ocean's
edge. The work is all the more remarkable for the context
in which the paintings were created, all of them in the
last three years, as the artist struggled first with the
death of his beloved wife, and then a difficult battle with
cancer. "Faced with a choice, Imero Gobbato chose life,"
says Harbor Square Gallery owner Thomas O'Donovan, a longtime
friend of the artist who has represented Gobbato's work
for more than 23 years. "He traveled to the edge, and
returned once again into the light that has been the hallmark
of his paintings since the beginning."
O'Donovan
calls this show the highlight of Harbor Square's 25th anniversary
season. "After more than two decades of representing
the work of this remarkable artist, I am still touched-over
and over again-by Imero's vision of this Earth, ever and
in all ways a place of arresting beauty and hope. These
paintings are little gems of great power, distillations
of dream and memory, each an eloquent prayer for a more
peaceful world-a world more considerate of the beautiful."
In his long career, he has
been not just a painter, but an etcher, engraver, children's
book illustrator, yacht designer and musician. Painting,
however, has been central to his life for the last 60 years,
and his paintings are prized by collectors drawn to his
powerful use of color and the joy of living evident in his
work. "My paintings allow me to express a certain philosophy
of life, an almost mystic approach to life, a religiosity
of life...a joy," says Gobbato. "You'd be surprised
at how many people tell me that."
Silence
10" x 13"
acrylic on panel
SOLD
