For about four years now I’ve been checking in with artists during the winter months to see what they may be working on. This year, because he’s in Maine and not Texas or New Orleans, I visited longtime friend Doug Gimbel at his winter studio – the Fish House is a bit too chilly this time of year!

Last time I caught up with him for an arts article was in 2019 when his show “More Tales From the Fish House” was on exhibit at Alison Evans’ Ae Ceramics. The first “Tales” was in 2015 at Ae … And then there was his show, “Yellow,” also at Ae, that blew me away. One series of paintings not in a show in Maine were the human skeletal paintings (he’s always liked using the human form as a point of departure) created during one of the winters he spent in New Orleans five, six years ago. So compelling. He did have a show while he was down there, but he’s got a couple kicking around I believe. And, like “Yellow,” many of those images are forever imprinted in my mind. In 2001 he began creating columns – both as drawings and sculptures of white pine. Doug easily made 100 of them over the years and the stories within each one were revealed in every faceted edge of every disk of those human spine-like sculptures. If you have one of them – in either form – consider yourself fortunate, indeed.

His central lines of inquiry into life, death, rebirth, time, space – have been explored through drawings, paintings, and wood sculpture, primarily of white pine – some reaching heights of 14 feet and some were set on fire for varying amounts of time. Over the decades, Doug has used a variety of media: chainsaws, Japanese pull saws, angle grinders, chisels and gouges to charcoal, pens, colored pencil, oils, watercolors, and acrylics ... and I’m quite sure I’ve left out some.

If you’re Facebook friends with Doug, you’ve seen the work he’s been posting, the “bird’s eye view” architectural abstracts and the Circles series paintings, both of which were receiving rave responses.

“I’ve had this idea about landscape from a bird’s eye view with exaggerated perspective of buildings for a while,” he shared. “We have such great views around here and, an image from that perspective adds a lot of potential for abstract composition. I started with the Smiling Cow and Country Store which I gave to Mark and Dianne (Gimbel). I got such response from it that I continued to do that.”

For me, the pièce de résistance (so far) is that painting of two of his family’s businesses. It really is an extraordinary work: the view from above of the buildings, the people in the street, anchored sailboats in the harbor behind them, the rich colors, paint strokes, shading … I’ve included a photo of it with this column so you can see it for yourself.

You know, over the years in addition to his family, Doug has gifted friends and acquaintances with his work because he knows a lot of people cannot afford to buy art. I am so happy to say that I am one of those lucky ones. My painting is from his show, “More Tales from the Fish House” in 2019. A mer(maid)witch just risen from the waters of Owl Creek on a night of a full moon. I gushed over it in my column about that show, so I’ll spare you all this time around!

Another bird’s eye view painting was commissioned by friend and former Tall Tales partner-in-crime Rusty Court, who wanted a Monhegan scene. The painting also included online with this column, is named for Cap’n Court’s lobster boat, the Casey Anne. This painting includes the Island Inn and the end tip of Manana Island with the Casey Anne moving through the water between them. The Trevett Country Store, Barters Island swing bridge, boats, cars … was sold as a Christmas present. Doug plans to finish a second painting previously begun of the Trevett landmark.

For more in this series, he’s got his eye on the Footbridge, Harbor Island, Our Lady Queen of Peace church, Tugboat and maybe some of the lighthouses. Like me, I’ll bet you can’t wait to see those.

The Circle Series. Last year Doug and Warren-based sculptor Jay “JBone” Sawyer, were hanging out, talking art, of course. You may be familiar with JBone’s large, sometimes super large, metal spheres or read about his steel El Faro Memorial sculpture installed in Rockland in 2022. His sculpture has been on the Boothbay Harbor Region Sculpture Walk and for a few years one was outside the Opera House and the other at Bath Savings Bank.

Anyway, Jay was interested in making art beyond his two-dimensional work. They painted almost one month together at Doug’s studio, in what Jay would later refer to as “Gimbel painting boot camp,” painting on paper attached to large pallets against one wall of the Fish House. As it turned out, Doug had recently been working more than usual with circles. Last year he had a painting commission for the 2023 Tour de France depicting the front person in the ceremonial yellow shirt that leads each of the race stages. The banner was displayed on the side of a building along the race route.

“I was drawing circles freehand for it, but I wanted to paint them perfectly, so circles and ellipses seemed natural to continue with,” he said. “I thought why not use circles as my form of departure? Now I’m using the circle to show points of tension in the abstract figure in painting and I’m continuing with that.”

The first painting in his Circle Series is in grays, black, white … when I look at it I feel as though I’m looking down into a well or something observing energy expanding and connecting within itself; or like I’m peering down from the top of a spiral staircase that keeps reproducing never reaching the bottom. This, too, received rave reviews on Doug’s FB page. His second in blues, gray and white … well, I see way too much in there, including creation!

“It takes a lot of looking after you paint to see what’s really working – and why. Something I really like to do is look at a painting in different lighting, different times of day,” Doug said. “And I take photographs. A photograph will reveal things that the paint may be hiding. It forces you to take a look and see it in a different way.”

He’s pulled out about 60 canvases, 50 of which have work on them. Some he’s revisited and made some changes, started new ones or is considering a new direction for others. I cannot wait to see what he does with the skeletal form with the curved back in greens. There’s also a predominantly blue skeletal figure, definitely female (in my mind) we looked at together. He could see a fish’s face emerging from the chest area, the breasts becoming eyes … is the fish about to consume the figure? Is it about the transformation of one life form into something new?

“If you’re exploring, you’re evolving,” Doug said. “And, as someone once told me, ‘movement is life, stagnation is death.’”

Stagnation? I say Douglas Gimbel has too inquiring a mind and far too many creative gifts for that to come to pass.