BLUE HILL – At Home Abroad — the Watercolors of David D. Pearce is a month-long exhibit of paintings by retired Ambassador David D. Pearce that will be on display in the Britton Gallery and Roland Howard Room of the Blue Hill Public Library. The exhibit is set to open May 31 and close on June 30, with an opportunity to meet the artist at the library on Saturday, June 11 from 3-5 p.m. He will make a short presentation at 3 p.m. and give a tour of the show.
On display in the library galleries will be about 30 original works done both in Maine and at Pearce’s various foreign service postings, including Athens, Jerusalem, Kabul, and Algiers. A limited number of signed prints will also be available for purchase. A portion of the proceeds from all sales will benefit the library.
At Home Abroad reflects the ambassador’s varied life experiences. Pearce grew up in Falmouth, and attended Bowdoin College as well as the graduate school of journalism at Ohio State University. He then spent nine years as a journalist and 35 years as a diplomat before making painting his third career in 2017. He met his wife of 44 years, Leyla Baroody Pearce, while posted to Beirut as UPI’s bureau chief and chief Middle East correspondent. Both of their children were born in Lebanon.
After leaving government in late 2016 Pearce began working full-time as an artist. Returning to Maine, he developed the D D Pearce Fine Art website for original paintings at https://www.daviddpearce.com.
Watercolor is Pearce’s medium of choice because he likes the degree of difficulty and the constant challenge of turning sudden developments into unexpected opportunities. As he likes to say, “There are no do-overs in watercolor, just as there are no do-overs in diplomacy.” His work tends to the abstract, “less a literal rendition than an effort to convey my feelings and responses to a particular place at a particular time.” He tells the stories behind his paintings in monthly blog/newsletter postings and on his websites.
Pearce’s work may be found in private collections in Europe, the Middle East, Canada and the U.S. Here in Maine his work has been exhibited for the past few years at the Thos. Moser showroom and gallery in Freeport, Maine. Five pieces from the Moser gallery are included in the June Blue Hill exhibit.
For more information, contact the library at 207-374-5515.
