Stephen LaPierre’s studio and gallery has a new location downtown!
Grand Opening December 14, 2025!
Find Stephen LaPierre’s new works in his new digs, 11 Harbor Loop, tucked in between the Building Center and the Coast Guard station—befittingly viewable from the Fitz Henry Lane site & Al Duca bronze iconic vista, threshold-bookended between murals (Studio Fresh FHL homage and Jeff Weaver trompe l’oeil windows), and on the route to Maritime Gloucester and the Lobster Trap Tree at this time of year!
Susan Wadia-Ells shares the news from Stephen LaPierre:
“Stephen LaPierre…the Gloucester oil painter…is having the grand opening of his new 11 Harbor Loop, downtown Gloucester, Mass., Open Studio on Sunday December 14, 2025. Barbara Lynch, former celebrity chef, will be his guest artist at the opening, also showing her new works from 1-4pm.”
President Joe Biden takes a selfie with mental health youth action forum participants. Official White House photograph by Adam Schultz. “We’ve invested $1 billion to help schools hire and train 14,000 new mental health counselors in schools across the country. We’re also taking steps to address the harm social media is doing to young people and hold these platforms accountable.” July 31, 2023
Fitz Henry Lane (1804-1865). Boston Harbor. 1854. Oil on canvas. Gift of the Wassermans, 1963. (Provenance: via Kennedy Galleries)
William Ranney (1813–1857). Boys Crabbing. 1855. Oil on canvas. Provenance: via Hirschl & Adler (added to the White House Collection in 1972)
photo: Fitz Henry Lane’s Boston Harbor at the MFA. David Cox. 2016
*I wrote about art at the White House in 2014 which was published here on GMG in 2015:
“What’s the best art inside the White House? No matter what is your artistic preference, Gloucester and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts could top the charts as the City and state with the best and most art ties featured at the White House.
…How does the White House collection work? It is unusual for the White House to accept art by living artists. There are more than 450 works of art in the permanent collection. New art enters the collection after it’s vetted and is restricted to works created at least 25 years prior to the date of acquisition. For the public rooms, the Office of the Curator works with the White House advisory committee–the First Lady serves as the Honorary Chair–and the White House Historical Association. The private rooms are the domain of the First Family. Works of art from collectors, museums, and galleries can be requested for temporary loans and are returned at the end of the President’s final term. The Obamas have selected contemporary art, including abstract art, from the permanent collection, and borrowed work for their private quarters. Besides the Hopper paintings and John Alston’s Martin Luther King sculpture, they’ve selected art by *Anni Albers, *Josef Albers, Edgar Degas, Jasper Johns, Louise Nevelson, *Robert Rauschenberg, Edward Ruscha, and *Alma Thomas.” * indicates works that have been donated to the permanent collection.
Catherine Ryan, 2014
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Jane Deering Gallery is pleased to present Leslie Lewis Sigler | Once Removed opening on
Thursday August 4th with a reception with the artist from 5-7pm.
Sigler writes:
“In my work I explore family objects — individual silver heirlooms that are related to one another in a single collection and, collectively, to the individual families that put them into domestic practice and social circulation. I’m interested in the histories and lifespans of these objects, their ability to reflect our own personal life stories and family histories, and the way they continue to connect us to one another in time and space.”
Leslie Lewis Sigler
The artist has a BFA in painting from the University of Texas, Austin and lives in California with her husband and two young sons. This is her second show on Cape Ann with Jane Deering Gallery, 19 Pleasant Street, Gloucester. Gallery hours: Friday & Saturday 1-5pm; Sunday 1-4pm; and by appointment @ 917-902-4359. janedeeringgallery.com
You may have noticed that the Gloucester Lyceum & Sawyer Free Public Library is sporting noticebly thinned out collections, and it’s not just the books. Three Fitz Henry Lane paintings were moved across the street to the Cape Ann Museum: Gloucester Harbor (gifted to the Library by Judith M Todd); Sawyer Homestead Freshwater Cove, Gloucester; and Coasting Schooner off Boon Harbor, ME. Additionally, a portrait of Sawyer and a Bertha Menzler Payton painting are no longer on view.
BEFORE AND AFTER
Gloucester Lyceum & Sawyer Free Public Library installation views- BEFORE (Lanes installed) / AFTER (Lanes removed)
Past the crowd, on the far walls installation view showing pair of Fitz Henry Lane paintings (Gloucester Harbor on the left and Sawyer Homestead Freshwater Cove on the right). A Carlton T Chapman painting is under the clock. Gloucester Lyceum & Sawyer Free Public Library
Gloucester, MA. Gloucester Lycecum & Sawyer Free Public Library December 2017 pair of Emile A Gruppe paintings installed (formerly site of two Fitz Henry Lane paintings)
You can click on the photos to read captions. The photo pair below show Lane Coasting Schooner replaced with a painting from the Addision Gilbert Hospital collection, a portrait of Sawyer and his wife
Library vs Museum
Lane painting installation views comparing Gloucester Lyceum & Sawyer Free Public Library vs Cape Ann Museum
More photos from both collections
Cape Ann Museum is just across the street and it’s the world’s most vital Lane collection. Still, I wish the paintings could remain at the library. I lament my industry’s inability, all of us, actually– to find a way to make stewardship affordable for repositories just like this one. I’ve been thinking about the pros and cons of making copies for the library. When access to originals is difficult or impossible, copies can be a boon. For example the Madonna atop Our Lady of Good Voyage is a replica. The original is held at the Cape Ann Museum and affords close observation that was impossible from the street. The copy preserves the impact of the site. Two dimensional poster reproductions and painted copies are rarely more. Mostly, I advocate for originals. Here, original art was replaced with original art.
The gifts were for the library and Gloucester, in varying degrees of partnership with the library since Sawyer’s private endowment upon his death in 1889. The provenance paperwork for the Lanes can be deciphered differently depending upon context.
The Lanes leaving the library made me think about the James Prendergast Library collection deaccession, for operating funds and a new vision, rather than a relocation just across a city square. That library is located in Jamestown New York. The board consigned 44 paintings to two auction houses for November 2017 sales. The update is that several works did not find purchasers, failing to meet presale estimates. The board rejected lowball offers following the public sales, and the art remains with the auction houses to be sold in future to-be-determined sales. The New York Attorney General office denied a purchase offer that would have held the art in Jamestown, ruling instead for public auction. A makerspace was crafted from three extant rooms where a children’s computer coding Scratch class was offered at the time of the sales. Jamestown had cut annual funding for its library by $300,000. (see prior GMG posts November 20 2017 and auction results)
I was hoping the Lanes might be featured prominently and safely with any interior buildout proposals at Sawyer Free library, like this installation at the Currier (which was a temporary build out for a museum exhibition), and the library’s other works. The Matz gallery is pretty perfect for changing exhibits of local artists.
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‘In Celtic tradition, there is a belief that heaven and earth are three feet apart — except in “thin places,” where the space between the physical world and the spiritual collapses, and we’re able to glimpse the transcendent, or the infinite, or the divine. The space where the sky and water meet — sometimes gently blurring together, sometimes crisply forming the horizon — is such a place for me. It can be beautiful or foreboding, tumultuous or calm, light or dark, and always it speaks to the universal truth of constant change. Tides flow and ebb, light shifts as the sun tracks across the sky, the atmosphere transforms with the weather and the seasons. The space is powerful, profound, and humbling, yet often in the busyness of life it is overlooked. The aim of these paintings is to present this space alone in all its myriad manifestations, to allow the gaze to focus on the “thin place” that is the horizon.’ — Adin Murray . 2017 Adin Murray was born in 1974 in Manchester, Massachusetts. He received his BA in Art/Biology from Tulane University in 1997, and his MFA in painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2008. In 2008, he had a solo exhibition at the Savannah Hilton Head International Airport, and in 2009, his work was shown at the Woodruff Art Center in Atlanta, the Rymer Gallery in Nashville, and the Pei-Ling Chan Gallery in Savannah. His work has been featured in Faultline, the University of California, Irvine’s literary and art publication, and it also appeared in both Southern Living and North Shore magazines. Murray currently lives and paints on Cape Ann in Massachusetts. This is his third show with the Jane Deering Gallery. 917-902-4359 . info@janedeeringgallery.com . janedeeringgallery.com
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When you make a comment on a GMG Post and you link your Name to your website, you may find yourself right here on the pages of GMG. I’ll be checking the Highlighted names for Artists, Bloggers and Other Interesting Websites for future posts.
Next up is Frequent commenter and Artist Leslie De Vaney;
Leslie De Vaney
Inspired by the sea, Leslie prefers painting nature, in all her glory. The mediums she most enjoys are watercolor and oil.
I had Great Time Visiting John at his Gallery on Rocky Neck this past weekend. He is a wealth of information on Painting and the Gloucester Waterfront. If you’ve never been, put it on your “ToDo” List.
John’s there 7 days a week, All Year Long. You can usually see his Red Van or as he calls it his “Studio on Wheels” parked out front.
He has an Easel and everything else he needs for Painting in the back so he can paint in any weather conditions.
John is a prolific Painter and you’ll see that when you visit his Gallery.
Here are some Photos I took Last weekend at The John Nesta Gallery.
Entrance to the John Nesta Gallery on Rocky Neck
When you first step in John’s Gallery LOOK UP, You’ll see some of his old Palettes. Amazing! He only uses 3 Colors plus white.
What you’ll see when you first walk in
You gotta see this Painting in Person
Just a few of I’m sure of hundreds of John’s Paintings
Beautiful and afordable Sketches of the Cape Ann Area
Good Morning Gloucester 