At the end of what would be his final interview, William Thon agreed to let the reporter see his Port Clyde studio, but urged gallery owner Cynthia Hyde to give the tour of the large shed where many of his works and painting materials were stored.

Three weeks later, Bill Thon died at age 94.

In the eight months since then, Hyde and husband James Kinealley, who own Caldbeck Gallery in Rockland, have been busy inventorying and beginning to liquidate the $4 million Thon estate, the bulk of which will go to the Portland Museum of Art for its program of juried biennial shows.

The museum has selected a number of paintings for its permanent collection – a Thon retrospective is scheduled for early next year.

But aficionados of Thon’s seascapes and other works will want to take in the current show at the Caldbeck, running through Aug. 18. Like the Thon show from last summer, this will be an opportunity to see varied works that will probably wind up in private collections.

It’s no easy task to summarize a career of more than a half-century in what Hyde terms a small show. But the 20 works chosen for the exhibit in the Caldbeck’s newly opened space in the carriage house at the rear of the gallery offer a good range of Thon’s medium and moods.

Caldbeck has works of the artist dating to the 1940s, but the earliest in this show, a painting from 1976, is the large oil “Deep Winter.”

Given its size and central placement among watercolors and other works, this may be the “star” of the current exhibit. It is certainly eye-catching.

The greens and golds, the iced trees, the division of the landscape into segments are classic Thon.

Closer inspection shows that the artist’s early years as a carpenter and bricklayer served him well in building the piece. The oils lent themselves to the smudges, scrapes, cuts and removal of paint that Thon used to bring alive the frosty air, the branches and bark of the spare trees.

Among the watercolors, two versions of “Irish Harbor” provide the chance to see a bit of Thon’s thought process at work.

Both are enlivened with rusty tones, both showing the same view of the waterfront. The difference is in the number of boats in the harbor, the number of houses on shore. Each piece has its merits, but it’s easy to think of a prospective buyer deciding they should be displayed as a pair.

In some of Thon’s paintings, it can be easy to miss the people – so prominent are the waves and the boat itself. But, as Hyde points out, his figures are often but “a presence,” not intended to be the focus of the works.

Bold waves in “Irish Fisherman” draw the eye with a rim of teal along the line of motion.

But that work is almost sedate compared to “The Fishery,” with sailing dory and main boat fairly dwarfed by the ocean. The fish-gathering seine blends right in, appearing at first to be just one more mammoth wave.

Several of the paintings are in black and white. Thon stopped using color during the last decade of his life, due to the loss of vision from macular degeneration.

A sponge effect adds texture to the spare trees of “Meadow.”

Black-and-whites such as this work and the simple “Sloop” may seem less meaty than earlier Thon paintings, but they also offer a tremendous sense of focus – perhaps the perspective that comes only from having lived long and well.

Whether a viewer prefers Thon’s seascapes or his woods and quarries is strictly a matter of taste. The point is to take the opportunity to see these works before they’re sold.

William Thon’s paintings are on display 11-5 Monday-Saturday and 1-5 Sunday through Aug. 18 at Caldbeck Gallery, 12 Elm St., Rockland, telephone 594-5935. His works also may be seen after that date by request. Also, see the Caldbeck Web site at www.caldbeck.com.