Artists group co-founder Francis Hamabe dies Former Rockport resident’s works nationally recognized

BRISTOL, R.I. – Francis E. Hamabe, a popular Maine artist of national reputation and an art instructor in the state for more than three decades, died March 2 at his home here after a brief illness.

He was the husband of Phyllis (Green) Hamabe and the late Sydney (Gardner) Hamabe. He was born in New Jersey, the son of the late Frank and Emma (Tiedmann) Hamabe.

He attended the Newark School of Art in New Jersey and the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence. A veteran of the Army in Europe and the Pacific during World War II, Hamabe in 1948 moved to Rockport, where he became associated with the Farnsworth Museum and co-founded the Maine Coast Artists. In 1950 he settled in Blue Hill, where he was associated with the Rowantrees Pavilion, arranging exhibits of modern art, until that facility closed.

He then taught art at Blue Hill Consolidated School, the University of Maine in Orono, and the University of Maine at Machias. From the 1950s until 1980, he taught adult classes up and down the Maine coast. Hamabe was honored by the University of Maine at Machias, where a major retrospective of his work appeared in 1994, with an honorary doctor of fine arts degree.

Hamabe, whose murals grace Eastern Maine Medical Center and the University of Maine at Machias, had maintained a studio in Blue Hill since 1950, and opened a studio in Bristol in 1994. Museums and private collections across the country contain his prints and paintings of Maine villages, and he is well-known for his work in silkscreen, oil, watercolor, and collage, as well as sculpture. His illustrations have appeared in the New Yorker, Down East and Maine Life magazines.

A memorial service will be held in Blue Hill at a later date.