The Thon tradition lives in Portland exhibit Former Port Clyde resident’s works featured

PORTLAND – To have the Whitney, the Smithsonian and the Swope lend from their collections for “The Poetry Within: The Life and Work of William Thon” at the Portland Museum of Art is very nice.

To see special works from private collections such as those of John Whitney Payson and a young woman named Freedom is wonderful.

But what’s most remarkable – and fortunate for those who live in the state – is that so many of the Thon watercolors and oils belong to Maine institutions where they will continue to be available: Bates College, Colby College, the Farnsworth Museum and, of course, PMA itself.

The more than 50 watercolors, oils and drawings are wonderful and varied, and which are the best depends on the eye – and the heart – of the viewer.

Start by knowing that William Thon, born in New York, a Navy man and lifetime sailor, moved to Port Clyde in the late 1940s and spent the next half-century there with his wife, Helen.

Many fans of Thon’s works are fascinated with the monochromatic watercolor and ink pieces he did during the last decade of his life, while nearly blind. The detail in “The Road Gaspe” and “Sloop Alice” is simply amazing.

What we think of as the Thon tradition certainly is evident in prismatic works such as “Frozen Sea Mist,” a 1955 oil on board, and “Quarry,” a 1952 watercolor and black pigment on paper owned by the Brooklyn Museum of Art.

When he died in December 2000, the artist left most of his estate to the Portland Museum of Art, a legacy that will be used to support its juried biennial exhibit.

His bequest also included several paintings, classics such as “Sloop #250,” a 1980s watercolor, ink and gouache on paper; and “Tuscan April,” a landscaped enlivened with greens and yellows.

Seascapes on exhibit include “The Seiners,” with the fishing net lending scale to the massive ocean. The watercolor is on loan from the collection of John and Joanne Payson, as is “Fishing off the Skelligs.” The couple also donated to the museum “Costa Brava Spain #6,” a 1958 oil with angular mountains.

Subjectively, my own favorites are hung in what I refer to as the “blue room,” the nook with oils done during the ’40s and ’50s, all with blues and blacks predominating.

Stand at the right angle and you can see the layers of oils, the paints Thon applied with putty knives and other implements.

In this room is the dark “East Wind,” the wartime painting chosen for the Artists for Victory display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

My personal favorite, the only known self-portrait of Thon, is “The Painter, Port Clyde,” a 1948 oil. The figure in the painting gazes across a hill, partially covered with snow, to something in the distance – a lightened patch of sky, birds hovering over an Ionic column. The element reflects the fact that the artist spent a year in Italy upon winning the Prix de Rome in 1947.

The painting was given to Heidi Stevens, the woman who took care of Thon during the last year of his life, and her daughter, art student Freedom Hamlin.

The pair also allowed the museum to show another painting they own, as well as some of the artist’s tools now belonging to Hamlin.

Several of the paintings in the exhibit are part of a collection Helen Thon left to Bates College when she died in 1999.

They are a story in themselves – “Killarney #19,” signed “Happy Birthday! To Helen with Love, Bill, June 10, 1971.” Another painting was given at Christmas 1968; still another on her birthday in 1997.

Several works are reproduced in the catalog for “The Poetry Within,” among them “East Wind” and “The Painter, Port Clyde.” Just as importantly, the catalog includes photos of Thon at various stages of his life – including two in the large room that was both artist’s studio and builder’s workshop.

I hope the PMA will keep some of Thon’s works on permanent display, as it has done for many Maine painters. So should the other facilities blessed to own his paintings.

Bill Thon was something special, a fact recognized by author-critic Carl Little of Somesville, former associate editor of Art in America.

How fortunate that before he died, in fact while Thon was still painting, Little and videographer Deb Vendetti filmed the artist at work in his Port Clyde studio for “William Thon: Maine Master,” part of the Maine Master Series produced by the Union of Maine Visual Artists.

“I more or less see with my hands,” Thon said while using fingers, brush, putty knife and squirt bottle of water to bring his inner vision to paper.

Of one of his many paintings of boats, he offered, “It’s dirty and smelly, just like a fish boat should be.”

Commentary on the video includes remarks by Susan C. Larsen of the Smithsonian. How aptly she describes Thon’s subjects as “nature’s material, shot through with electricity.”

This half-hour video is a wonderful complement to the Thon collections that brighten and enlighten our world.

“The Poetry Within” is on exhibit through May 27 at Portland Museum of Art, One Congress Square, 775-6148. William Thon’s paintings also may be seen through his estate’s dealer, Caldbeck Gallery, 12 Elm St., Rockland, telephone 594-5935; www.caldbeck.com. The Maine Masters video is available in gift shops at the Portland Museum of Art and Rockland’s Farnsworth Museum; at the Caldbeck Gallery, or by calling Robert Shetterly at 326-8459.