Fresco artists back in Solon for fundraiser

SOLON – They were young men when they painted the frescoes of the South Solon Meeting House a half-century ago, but the scenes remain fresh, and with a planned restoration of the building under way, the images should enthrall visitors for many years to come.

The frescoes were painted on the walls and ceilings of the historic meetinghouse in the 1950s by faculty and students of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. They depict images inspired by the Bible and vary in tone and form. They remain as fresh today as the style of painting that describes them.

Four of the dozen or so artists who painted the frescoes returned to the meetinghouse July 21 to attend a fundraising event for the building’s restoration, and to take part in a panel discussion about how they chose their subjects and their working techniques.

Artists John Wallace, Ashley Bryan, Sigmund Abeles and Sidney Hurwitz charmed those attending the gathering with their memories of painting the frescoes and their views on art and life.

Although each said painting the frescoes was one of the most rewarding periods of their lives, they rarely attempted the method again.

“It’s been 51 years since I painted a fresco and I just did one today,” said Abeles, a retired professor emeritus at the University of New Hampshire. The fresco was painted at the school that morning for a small audience and depicted Wallace’s companion, Nora Lauori, holding a day lily.

“It’s so exciting, amazing,” said Lauori. “What an experience.”

While the frescoes remain as fresh as the days they were painted, the same cannot be said for the meetinghouse. The frescoes were painted during the last restoration of the meetinghouse and the building has deteriorated in the intervening years. Members of the South Solon Historical Society estimate that it will cost more than $700,000 to restore the graceful church. About one-third of the money needed has been raised to date.

The South Solon Meeting House was built in 1842 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Constructed as a traditional colonial church, the building features its original pews, pulpit and choir loft gallery. During daylight, the frescoes are illuminated by six large windows and the artworks’ colors shift in tone with the angle of the sun.

The Skowhegan School was founded in 1946 and remains one of the few art schools that still offers its artist students the opportunity to practice the “buon fresco” technique. The school’s summer programs provide a stimulating and rigorous environment for artistic creation and are attended by some of the country’s leading talents. The school’s 60 classrooms, studios and residences sit on 300 acres.

Frescoes were created more than 3,000 years ago and the method of applying pigment to fresh plaster has stood the test of time. Fresco painting was brought to the Skowhegan School by Ben Shahn, who worked with legendary fresco painter Diego Rivera.

Artist John Wallace, retired professor of painting and drawing at Western Connecticut State College, recalled that he came to the school in 1954 to paint and was surprised when he was asked to do a fresco of a choir of angels on the wall of the choir loft.

Wallace said the school wanted him to paint the image on dry plaster but he wanted to paint on wet. It wasn’t until Shahn intervened that he got his way. A plasterer was hired to work ahead of him as the fresco had to be created in the gap between the time the plaster was applied until it was nearly dry.

“I had been sent up here by my [art] school to paint, so this was a new project for me,” Wallace recalled. “I had never done a fresco. I didn’t know anything about it. I had never seen an angel.”

Hurwitz, professor emeritus at Boston University, had a similar experience. He had never worked in fresco and recalled that he started from “pure ignorance.” When the school asked him to consider painting a fresco, he submitted a sketch and was selected.

Hurwitz said he looked at the Maine around him and decided to create panels inspired by the state’s maritime and agricultural way of life. One is pastoral, depicting people in the fields; the other is of Jesus preaching from a fishing boat.

“I was pretty pleased with the result,” Hurwitz recalled. “It was a completely idyllic experience. It was also the summer I met the woman who became my wife. So it was a summer to remember.”

Bryan, a noted impressionist and Coretta Scott King Award winner, said he also based his fresco on Jesus preaching but his image depicted the multitudes from the preacher’s viewpoint. He said he used the entire curved back wall of the meetinghouse and painted as though driven by the rhythm of music.

“Fresco is a wonderful material to work with. I learned a lot but I have never carried it further,” he said. “It allowed us to give them art in a structure that was used by the community. It was such an honor to be part of a community that would be using this building.”

Historical society board member Warren Cook of Kingfield told the crowd that filled the ancient meetinghouse pews that the structural integrity of the building was in poor condition and that work would have to be conducted from the outside in to protect the frescoes. He said the meetinghouse had been used for more than 150 years and it was the community’s duty to preserve it for future generations.

For further information, contact the South Solon Historical Society, care of Andrew Davis, PO Box 894, Skowhegan 04976, or call 643-2555. Tax-deductible contributions can be made to the Maine Community Foundation for the benefit of the South Solon Meeting House, 245 Main St., Ellsworth 04605.