The Haley Art Gallery in Kittery ME will host a talk on the Bill Oakes exhibition

KITTERY – The Haley Art Gallery will host a Gallery Talk by Sharon Oakes as part of the ongoing exhibition: “Bill Oakes: Art, Imagination, Vision” on Saturday, August 20 from 2-4 p.m. Sharon and Bill Oakes have been married for 15 years. years before Bill’s death in 2005. The talk will explore how a trip to Mexico in 1990 and the artist’s unique vision and expansive imagination inspired many of the works on display at the gallery through September 10.

Part of the proceeds from the Bill Oakes show will be donated to The Dance Hall, Kittery.

Sharon Oakes will also discuss how Bill, after years as a figurative artist and illustrator, became so enthralled with the light, textures, colors, chipped posters and rusty cars of Mexico and moved from realism to abstraction. He felt that abstract art encouraged the viewer to use their imagination and “see in new ways”. One of Bill Oakes’ greatest joys in life was helping others make discoveries.

Bill Oakes grew up in Maine and began painting as a child. After graduating from Brunswick High School, he attended Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, Washington. Moving to Washington, DC to join the Navy, he was assigned to the Navy Combat Art Gallery as the first active duty artist to provide visual reporting since 1954.

His more than 180 paintings and drawings of Vietnamese veterans returning to Bethesda Naval Hospital, sailors at Navy Diving School, and the recommissioning of the battleship New Jersey remain in the Fine Art Collection of the US Navy.

Oakes held an MA in Critical and Creative Thinking from UMass, Boston, and taught at the New England School of Art and Design and the Art Institute of Boston. His illustrations have appeared in books and numerous magazines and newspapers, including The Washington Post (as Watergate Courtroom Artist), The Boston Globe, The Christian Science Monitor and Look, National Geographic, Reader’s Digest , Time, Sail and Yankee magazines. He created and self-published several art instruction manuals and produced three children’s books with one of his art students.

The Haley Art Gallery is located at 178 Haley Rd. in Kitterie. Call 617-584-2580 or email haleygallery@comcast.net or visit haleyartgallery.com for more information.