The city of Portland and its surroundings, including the islands of Casco Bay, have inspired a wide range of art over the past 200 years. The “city by the sea,” as Longfellow famously called it, has been a visual talisman for a host of artists, from early masters like Harrison Bird Brown and John Bradley Hudson to a remarkable roster of contemporary painters. Subjects include many of the city’s signature buildings, including the Custom House and Portland Head Light, as well as street scenes, the waterfront, harbor, back bay, and surrounding landscapes—even the Million Dollar Bridge. Paintings of Portland will feature a wide range of motifs, in all seasons and represented by an array of styles. About a quarter of the book will be devoted to historical pieces, the rest to paintings by contemporary artists.

Over two days in 1982, Jim Lommasson photographed the strange and beautiful paintings that decorated the center column of the historic carousel at Oaks Amusement Park in Portland, Oregon. The original carousel images - painted by German and Italian immigrants around 1912 - were an exotic assortment of Edwardian pastoral scenes featuring western explorers, Native Americans, an Arab riding a camel, and idealized women. When these paintings began to show signs of wear in the 1940s, two itinerant artists brothers from Vashon Island, Washington - were hired to paint over the eighteen panels with depictions of such local landmarks as the Columbia River Highway, Mount Hood, Multnornah Falls, and scenes from the Oregon coast. Eventually, the surfaces of these new paintings also began to flake and fade, revealing parts of the original images in unusual and unexpected ways. The resulting double exposures or "pentimentos" included a ghostly sailboat gliding through a forest, an Indian chief looming over the Columbia River Gorge, and a parasoled woman with the road to Crown Point emerging from her loins. Each new image created a completely accidental, even surreal, story about the juxtaposition of two generations of paintings. Just three years after Jim Lommasson captured these images on film, the original paintings were restored and the mysterious double exposures disappeared under yet another layer of paint. Oaks Park Pentimento preserves these haunting photographs and also includes an appreciation by art historian Prudence Roberts and a look at Oaks Park, past and present, by journalist Inara Verzemnieks.

"From 1501 to 1505, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo Buonarroti both lived and worked in Florence. Leonardo was a charming, handsome fifty year-old at the peak of his career. Michelangelo was a temperamental sculptor in his mid-twenties, desperate to make a name for himself. The two despise each other."--Front jacket flap.

Four "prophets" of art whose luminous work unfolds the mysteries of domestic life

The book is an expanded, pictorial review of the history of painting in Oregon from 1859-1959. The first edition was published as an encyclopedia and index of Oregon painters with historical data about the evolution of painting styles, educational institutions, and exhibition venues in the Northwest; this book expands the focus on the history of painting in Oregon, adding essays on Impressionism and Modernism while using more and better visual examples to illustrate the strength of the state's early painters. In addition, the original indexed content has been edited and condensed. Oregon Painters fills an important niche, as little has been written about the early history of Northwest art and this volume serves as a valuable resource for discovering artists who remain largely unknown but whose works continue to gain in reputation and value.

24 full-color postcard reproductions reflect the Portland Museum's rich and varied holdings of paintings by American and European artists, among them Homer, Hopper, Wyeth, Sargent, da Vinci, Monet, Matisse and Magritte.