In the W. Robert Paine Gallery on Ocean Avenue in Kennebunkport, artist Robert Paine is surrounded by his paintings. With the mediums he uses, Paine renders serene coastal scenes of Maine. Paintings of people sitting on the beaches, boats in the water, scenes of the ocean and marinas are at least 18 by 24 inches and framed.
“My wife and I were having lunch at the Arundel Wharf one day, and I said ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to have the cottage across the street?’” Paine asked his wife during a vacation in Kennebunkport in 1981.
After running an advertisement seeking living quarters and gallery space, Paine received one phone call. The caller was Eleanor Woodman, who owned the cottage on Ocean Avenue. She sold him the cottage in 1982, and Paine and his wife Evelyn have been living there ever since.
Now 85 years old, Paine displays his own artwork in a small room to the front of the house. The W. Robert Paine Gallery has original pieces, most are limited edition prints, and all works are for sale. Before becoming a full time painter, Paine was an illustrator for advertising agencies.
“I was in the Navy during World War II and when I got back I went to school on the GI Bill,” Paine said.
He said he earned his degree in advertising and illustration from the New York Phoenix School of Design. While in New York, Paine met artists Norman Rockwell, Alex Ross and Dean Cornwell and said their work and talent was very influential to his success.
Paine said he worked as a freelance illustrator for different companies during the next five years.
“Then I heard a very helpful word that the illustration industry was going to bite the dust because of photography and television. I was advised to find an agency,” Paine said.
During the next 11 years, Paine said he worked for Ted Bates Advertising Agency in New York, first as an illustrator then as an art director. He said the following four years he worked as vice president for Geyer-Oswald, Inc. in New York before becoming his own consultant again, directing the production of sales commercials.
In an autobiographical book Paine published, he included sketches he made while working for various companies. Some of these accounts were advertisements for MARX Toy Company, various cosmetic companies, Choice Soaps and the first advertisement for Water Pik. Other clients Paine worked for included the Association of the American Railroads, Sunkist, Colgate-Palmolive Company and Mobile Oil Company.
In 1975, Paine decided to start The Village School of Arts in Contoocook, N.H. He said within two weeks, he had 30 students signed up for drawing and painting lessons.
He ran the school for six years before moving to Maine.
“You’ve probably said ‘I can’t draw,’ but you have to find some way to understand what you are looking at. It’s all geometric forms. There’s a circle, a triangle and that makes a leaf,” Paine said.
He used these simple techniques to teach students they could draw anything.
“My students had a misconception of drawing from a photograph. You have to get out there and feel it. A photograph doesn’t tell the truth,” Paine said.
Paine does get out there and feel it. He said he sketches small location drawings and takes photographs to refer back to when working in his studio. This doesn’t necessarily mean setting up a comfortable outdoor studio. He said for the painting “On the Kennebunk,” he sat in a canoe to do his location sketches. For a commission of a house on Mile Stretch Road in Biddeford Pool, he set up a ladder on the beach to get the correct perspective.
“Everyone calls it artwork, but if it was work, I wouldn’t do it,” Paine says.
Collectors throughout the world have purchased Paine’s paintings in egg tempura, oil and watercolor. Paine’s original painting of Portland Head Light is now in France and “Autumn Road,” a painting of a road with a canopy of autumn colored trees, is in Scotland. Prints of these paintings hang in Paine’s gallery. George and Laura Bush purchased the original of “God Bless America,” a painting with ocean waves, prairie fields and mountain peaks in the background and the American flag flying in the foreground. It now hangs in the White House. A print of the original hangs in Paine’s gallery with a thank you note from Laura Bush. Paine said the Bush family owns a lot of his work.
Paine has been commissioned for many pieces of art, including a work for the Friends of Wood Island Lighthouse, who are hosting “Capture the Coast,” an art auction to raise money for ongoing restorations of the lighthouse. Artwork for the auction will consist of coastal scenes from Prouts Neck, Scarborough to Wells. Of the 55 artists participating, Paine is the feature artist for “Capture the Coast.”
“When they asked me to participate, I figured why not do a painting of Wood Island Lighthouse,” Paine said.
He said he never painted the lighthouse before, and decided to work from East Point Sanctuary in Biddeford Pool. The watercolor is a view from Biddeford Pool toward Wood Island and the lighthouse.
Sheri Poftak, chairman of the history committee of Friends of Wood Island Lighthouse, said the association is celebrating the 200th anniversary of the lighthouse. She said the Friends of Wood Island Lighthouse began repair work to the building in 2004. Poftak said the Maine State Historical Preservation Committee approves all restoration projects. The lighthouse’s 42-foot tower is currently being restored.
The association’s art auction has received sponsorship from Nonantum Resort in Kennebunkport, Red Geranium II in Biddeford Pool, Maine Seaside Rentals in Biddeford Pool and Blue Elephant Events in Saco. Paintings will be auctioned off on July 13. Paine’s watercolor painting of the lighthouse is matted and shrink-wrapped, but not framed, and said he thinks the bids will start at $1,000. Poftak said artists can donate between 50 and 100 percent of the final bid.
“There are two things to appreciate in life, real estate and artwork. I mean all artwork, not just paintings.  Both things always increase in value,” Paine said.
For more information on Robert Paine, visit his Web site at www.wrobertpaineart.com. For more information on Wood Island Lighthouse or “Capture the Coast,” visit www.woodislandlighthouse.org.