Phil Barter, Painter of Maine
in Ellsworth

Phil Barter has been painting Maine for 60 years. Barter has at the same time had marine occupations in Maine, including fishing. He knows well many of the places and people in his paintings. Over the decades Barter has developed imagery that is distinctively his own. The people and places depicted in this Franklin, Maine native’s work could only have been painted by him. Barter is an original. He doesn’t consider himself a folk artist or a primitive painter.

Barter’s abstract landscapes are paeans not just to the generic “purple mountain’s majesty,” but to the majesty of nature. The majesty of nature along Maine’s coast, inland mountains and forests. He has spent time and painted in the American Southwest, Mexico, Spain, Greenland, Newfoundland, Norway and elsewhere and brought back his vision of those places.

Barter’s rocky coasts are not unique because they look just like “that” rock on Mount Desert Island, but because, as is nature, they are inexplicably evocative.

Philip Barter’s work will be shown at the Courthouse Gallery in Ellsworth, Maine from August 14–September 6.
Courthouse Gallery Fine Art
6 Court Street, Ellsworth, Maine 04605
207 667 6611
207 266 5199 cell
www.courthousegallery.com