Northern Maine focus of university exhibit

ORONO – Two complementary exhibits by area artists opened Thursday at the Hudson Museum on the University of Maine campus in Orono, showcasing the history, wildness and beauty of the north Maine woods.

“Wildness within, wildness without” features large color images by Atkinson photographer Bridget Besaw that depict the many ways people enjoy the wilds of the northern woods.

A former Bangor Daily News photographer, Besaw was chosen to document the natural beauty of the Thoreau-Wabanaki Trail, the 300-mile, full-circle route traveled by Massachusetts naturalist and philosopher Henry David Thoreau and his native American guides during several excursions in Maine in the mid-1800s.

The land-and-water trail begins in Bangor and loops up through the Moosehead Lake Region, peaks at Chamberlain Lake and curves southeast to Medway, Lincoln and Indian Island.

Besaw said the project is intended to attract visitors to the largely unchanged landscapes that inspired Thoreau, which many native Americans still hold sacred.

Her photographs seek “to tell the story of the human experience in nature,” according to the artist’s statement included in the exhibit.

A book about the trail project will be available within a few weeks, Besaw said.

Besaw’s photographs will be on display at the Hudson for the month of June. On July 22, they will be featured at the Thoreau-Wabanaki Trail Festival in Greenville. The festival, being held July 21 through July 23, will celebrate the 150th anniversary of Thoreau’s 1857 trip to Maine.

The photo exhibit will be featured at College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, the University of Maine in Presque Isle and Bates College in Lewiston during the late summer and fall.

“My Katahdin Lake Story” presents the moody and colorful paintings of Indian Island artist and educator Michael Vermette.

For the past 20 years, Vermette has captured views of the area around Katahdin Lake, which has recently been incorporated into Baxter State Park as part of a 4,000 acre parcel of wilderness land.

Many of the evocative watercolors and oils on display at the Hudson this month capture dramatic views of Maine’s highest peak in a range of weather and light conditions.

Vermette, who teaches art at the Indian Island School, is among more than a dozen Maine painters who donated their work at an auction last year to raise money in support of the state’s purchase of the Katahdin Lake property.

Some images from the two shows may be viewed on line at www.umaine.edu/hudsonmuseum.

For more about the Thoreau-Wabanaki Trail project, visit www.thoreauwabanakitrail.org.