Oyster River High School art teacher, Tim Lawrence, will be this month’s featured artist in the Kittery Art Association’s February show. Lawrence will be in the “artist’s spotlight” for the month of February as the association puts on this month’s show, “Moments of Silence.” The show will run from February 6th through March 8th and will feature artists from all over the Seacoast area. The spotlight will be kicked off by a reception that will run from 4 to 6 pm on Saturday, February 8th in which Lawrence will present and talk about his newest works. Lawrence is not the only artist that will be exhibited that has ties to Oyster River High School however. Two ORHS students are among those exhibited this month as well.
“There are 8 paintings and 4 vases in the collection, many of which I started or finished [at the high school]. All of the paintings are in Gouache… I was doing a lot of oil paintings and was making a mess. It was nice to take a break from oils,” said Lawrence on his collection. Many of the paintings in the collection depict trees that can be found around Lawrence’s house in the Kittery woods. “I often paint very specific to the species when I paint nature. With these paintings I was trying to be less specific, only looking at the reference for 10 – 15 minutes and inventing the rest adding more color to many,” Lawrence added.
“The Kittery Art Association is truly honored to have Tim as a relatively new member. His painting has caught much attention and positive feedback so it made sense to ask him to be the first Spotlight Artist in our 2020 season,” said Deborah CR Cotter, the Exhibits Chair and Vice President of the Board of Trustees at the Kittery Art Association. The association noted having Lawrence bringing in younger artists has been an added asset to the gallery.
Two students from the high school will be among the artists exhibited this month. Both are students of Lawrence and will have multiple works of art in the show. Those students are Madison Hoopler (‘20)and Connor Quigley (‘20), who are two of the youngest members of the association.
Hoppler was the first of Lawrence’s students to join the association and has three pieces in this month’s show. “Mr. Lawerence has given me so many opportunities with my art and one of them has been the Kittery Artist Association. It has allowed me to not only develop my skills more but to show my art to the world and the community,” said Hoppler.
Lawrence’s goal this year was to give students more opportunities and tools to be able to sell and exhibit their art in the community. “It is important to get students professional experience and also practice what I preach,” said Lawrence. “The remarkable part is that whenever I talk about this event I can immediately defer the attention to the prolific work of my students and take the attention off of me,” added Lawrence.
Lawrence, Hoppler, and Quigley, the second student artist in the show, have spent the last few weeks finalizing frames, prices, and names for each of their pieces. “I am excruciatingly excited to actually have a body of work out there. I am not ok at all however with all the attention that has come with it,” said Lawrence.
“The opportunity is pretty remarkable and being connected to the Durham community is also really awesome. The advertisements for the show have reached all the way to Durham from Kittery. It’s really nice to have all the support from the Oyster River Community and to hopefully have more people at the gallery to see Madison and Connor’s work,” noted Lawrence. Like Lawrence, Cotter hopes that those from the Oyster River Community will come to the gallery. “I hope that many of the Oyster River community will visit the Kittery Art Association during the show,” she said.
Hoppler concluded by sharing how special she feels having Lawrence as a teacher and mentor. “In class we don’t necessarily get to see Mr. Lawrence’s art, and for him to show his art at the Kittery Artist Association is definitely special to the Oyster River Community as well as having him as a teacher in our district.”