On Saturday, April 16, the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine, will open a new exhibition entitled Four in Maine: Drawings which will showcase the work of four artists: Mary Barnes, Emily Brown, T. Allen Lawson and John Moore.  The third annual exhibition featuring the work of living artists in the region, this year's Four in Maine will focus on drawing. The exhibition will run in the museum's Crosman Gallery through September 11, 2011. The primary media sponsor for Four in Maine: Drawings is Down East magazine, books and online. Four in Maine: Drawings is made possible in part through the support of John and Sarah Ames.

Part of a statewide collaboration among twenty arts organizations this year, the Farnsworth exhibition will demonstrate the wide variety of approaches to drawing present not just in Maine, but from the broader perspective of contemporary American art. Although the images of Sedgwick-based artist Mary Barnes' works generally derive from her observations of the natural world, both her utilization of that imagery and her innovative techniques push the very definition of drawing. She employs a variety of materials, including ink, Mylar and sometimes collage elements in her mixed media drawings to create "different sounds in a composition," which may even include marks upon both sides of the work.

Similarly, Emily Brown, who lives in Philadelphia and summers in South Montville, draws and paints in and about the inland Maine landscape she loves. She has recently combined some of her drawings and prints with small collected objects in a series of collages.  The intuitive assemblage of the motley parts has resulted in works of both personal connection and logic.

T. Allen Lawson, a Colorado native who lives in Rockport, is primarily a landscape painter and draftsman whose carefully observed and elegantly rendered compositions immediately refer in an illusionistic way to the natural world around him. Nonetheless, the spare use of line and shading, in combination with a meticulous technique, charge these otherwise realistic works with an abstract power.

John Moore, formerly a professor of art at the University of Pennsylvania and a resident of Belfast, has recently developed a body of large-scale charcoal drawings of old factories and other evidence of urban decay. More traditional in subject matter and materials, they are evocative works that depend for their impact on manipulation of texture, light and mood, enhanced by their large size.

Conceived in 2009 as a means of focusing critical and public attention on the vital presence of living artists, Four in Maine continues the Farnsworth Art Museum's long tradition, harkening back to the opening of the museum in 1948, of showcasing the work of living artists in the state. This exhibition is part of the Maine Drawing Project, a statewide collaboration among Maine arts organizations featuring exhibitions throughout 2011 that celebrate drawing. For more information about the Maine Drawing Project, visit http://chitna.asap.um.maine.edu/mainedrawing.

The opening of the exhibition Four in Maine: Drawings will be celebrated at a preview and reception for museum members and guests of the artists, on Friday, April 15, from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the museum library. Reservations are appreciated. Please contact the membership office by calling 207-596-6256 or emailing membership@farnsworthmuseum.org

The Farnsworth Art Museum celebrates Maine's ongoing role in American art. It offers a nationally recognized collection of works from many of America's greatest artists, with 20,000 square feet of gallery space and over 10,000 works in the collection. The Farnsworth has one of the largest public collections of works by sculptor Louise Nevelson, while its Wyeth Center features works of N.C., Andrew and Jamie Wyeth. Two National Register historic sites, the Farnsworth Homestead and the Olson House, and Julia's Gallery for Young Artists complete the museum complex. Please visit www.farnsworthmuseum.org for more information on current exhibitions, programs and events.