Portland Press Herald: Replicas of famous paintings mark trails at Maine state parks

The Portland Museum of Art has expanded a program that showcases its collection to people enjoying the outdoors.

July 31, 2023
By Minnie Stephenson

This article appears in the Portland Press Herald.

The Portland Museum of Art is bringing back “Art Outside and On the Trail,” where they have reproduced more than two dozen paintings from their collection and placed them in different parks around Maine.

The program started last summer and was a success, with the help of partners L.L.Bean; the Maine Department of Agriculture, the Conservation and Forestry’s Bureau of Parks and Land; and the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens.

The museum and its partners originally came up with this program to get frequent museumgoers out to the state parks and would get frequent parkgoers into the museum – a win-win situation.

Where to find them:

• Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens

• Crescent Beach State Park

• Ferry Beach State Park

• Range Pond State Park

• Wolfe’s Neck Woods State Park

“We saw a lot of wonderful feedback,” said Hayley Barton, marketing manager at the museum.

Reproductions of paintings will once again appear at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens and Wolfe’s Neck Woods State Park, but three new parks are featured this summer: Crescent Beach State Park, Ferry Beach State Park and Range Pond State Park.

Museum staff was able to go and scope out each of the parks to decide what goes where. Some park rangers also made special requests for certain paintings they wanted to see at their park.

“That piece of it has been very collaborative and fun,” Barton said.

Last summer, people could earn a free one-year family museum membership by taking selfies at each of the parks. This summer, the museum has created a booklet filled with activities and prompts about each park, and a completed booklet will earn a membership.

The booklet can be picked up at the Portland Museum of Art and contains prompts such as, “Could you put together a playlist inspired by artwork?” or “Do a drawing of something you saw today.” Since the questions are interpretive, Barton said the museum is not concerned with people trying to cheat the system just to win a free membership. 

“These are geared towards kids young and old – kids who are young in age and kids who are young at heart,” Barton said.

Some of the paintings from last summer will make another appearance, along with some new ones. You can expect to see works by Maine-based artists, but also famous works such as Winslow Homer’s “Weatherbeaten” at Crescent Beach State Park or Claude Monet’s “The Seine at Vétheuil” at Ferry Beach State Park.

Barton’s personal favorite is “Dark Harbor Fisherman” by Newell Convers Wyeth at Crescent Beach State Park.

“It was just beautiful to see that there with the ocean in the background,” Barton said.

Museum staff hopes this encourages people to visit them and see more paintings. Still, they are simply happy to provide art for people to enjoy while walking, biking or hiking.

Barton said the museum has already received feedback this summer about how happy the art makes them or how it’s a such wonderful surprise to find the art on the trails. Additionally, Barton says people have been excited about the added incentive of the booklet to visit each location.

“People love having an excuse to get out there and try new things, see new places they haven’t been yet,” Barton said.

Because of the continued positive feedback, the museum will definitely continue the program in summers to come, Barton said.

This summer, the museum is collecting booklets until Oct. 29. You can email a picture of the completed booklet to pmaarttrail@portlandmuseum.org or drop it off at the museum.