Don Demers
1956
“Painting is a poignant balancing act between inner vision, virtuosity and mystery.”
–Don Demers (as quoted in Plein Air Magazine, March 2005, page 61)
Born in Lunenburg, Massachusetts, Don Demers largely considers himself to be a self-taught artist, though he has studied at the School of the Worcester Art Museum and the Massachusetts College of Art. Feeling his academic instruction to be inadequate, Demers left the Museum School to sail as a crewmember on schooners and square-rigged ships. His love for the sea continues on to the present day and likely stemmed from his early summers spent on the shoreline near Boothbay Harbor. In 1984, Demers settled in Maine, and his close affiliation with the ocean has remained an ever-present theme in his works, as evident in his views of sailing ships to rock-strewn coastlines.
Nationally recognized for his oil paintings, Demers has been featured in American Artist Magazine, Yachting Magazine, Nautical Quarterly, Nautical World, Offshore Magazine and Maine Boats and Harbor, as well as in the 1991 Watson-Guptill publication Marine Painting, Techniques of Modern Masters. His landscape work has garnered him two awards at the Laguna Plein Air Invitations in Laguna Beach, California in 2001 and 2002. He also received an award for his painting at the 2007 Crystal Cove Invitational sponsored by the Irvine Museum in Orange County, California. Demers is a “Fellow” of the American Society of Marine Artists, an elected member of the Guild of Boston Artists, the Salmagundi Club and the California Art Club, and a signature member of the Plein Air Painters of America. He has won a record seventeen awards at the Mystic International Marine Art Exhibition, in Mystic, Connecticut, including the Rudolph J. Schaefer Maritime Heritage Award in 2006. Demers’ illustrations have been recognized by the Museum of American Illustration four times in their national competition representing the finest examples of work in the field. In addition to the many private collectors which own Demers’ work, his clients include American Airlines and the National Park Service, and he has exhibited at the Contemporary American Marine Art exhibition at the Frye Art Museum of Seattle (1997), the Cummer Museum in Jacksonville, Florida (1997-98), and at galleries in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and San Francisco. His work has been featured in a number of texts including Concordia Yawls, The First Fifty Years, by Elizabeth Meyer, Marine Painting and Yachts on Canvas, by James Taylor, Yacht Portraits published by Sheridan House, A Gallery of Marine Art, Rockport Publishers, Marine Painting, Techniques of Modern Masters, Watson-Guptill, and Bound for Blue Water, by J. Russell Jinishian. Demers has also gained vast recognition as a fine arts educator and reaches countless museums, art associations, yacht clubs, historical societies, educational institutions and students through his workshops and lectures, held in widespread places including Bordeaux, France, Dingle, Ireland, and Maui, Hawaii. His memberships include the American Society of Marine Artists and the Guild of Boston Artists.
In 2009, Demers’ work could be seen in the American Society of Marine Artists’ 30th Anniversary National Exhibition. In the fall of 2010, Vose Galleries proudly displayed our first solo exhibition of Demers’ paintings, followed up by a second show in the fall of 2013, and he was featured by the gallery at the 14th and 17th Annual Boston International Fine Arts Shows. Whether studying the sea from his 35-foot sloop or gathering information on small-scale oil and casein studies from the shoreline and woodlands, Demers prefers to work from nature, rather than from photo reference. His paintings embody the freshness of the natural world and the discerning eyes of an artist.
–Don Demers (as quoted in Plein Air Magazine, March 2005, page 61)
Born in Lunenburg, Massachusetts, Don Demers largely considers himself to be a self-taught artist, though he has studied at the School of the Worcester Art Museum and the Massachusetts College of Art. Feeling his academic instruction to be inadequate, Demers left the Museum School to sail as a crewmember on schooners and square-rigged ships. His love for the sea continues on to the present day and likely stemmed from his early summers spent on the shoreline near Boothbay Harbor. In 1984, Demers settled in Maine, and his close affiliation with the ocean has remained an ever-present theme in his works, as evident in his views of sailing ships to rock-strewn coastlines.
Nationally recognized for his oil paintings, Demers has been featured in American Artist Magazine, Yachting Magazine, Nautical Quarterly, Nautical World, Offshore Magazine and Maine Boats and Harbor, as well as in the 1991 Watson-Guptill publication Marine Painting, Techniques of Modern Masters. His landscape work has garnered him two awards at the Laguna Plein Air Invitations in Laguna Beach, California in 2001 and 2002. He also received an award for his painting at the 2007 Crystal Cove Invitational sponsored by the Irvine Museum in Orange County, California. Demers is a “Fellow” of the American Society of Marine Artists, an elected member of the Guild of Boston Artists, the Salmagundi Club and the California Art Club, and a signature member of the Plein Air Painters of America. He has won a record seventeen awards at the Mystic International Marine Art Exhibition, in Mystic, Connecticut, including the Rudolph J. Schaefer Maritime Heritage Award in 2006. Demers’ illustrations have been recognized by the Museum of American Illustration four times in their national competition representing the finest examples of work in the field. In addition to the many private collectors which own Demers’ work, his clients include American Airlines and the National Park Service, and he has exhibited at the Contemporary American Marine Art exhibition at the Frye Art Museum of Seattle (1997), the Cummer Museum in Jacksonville, Florida (1997-98), and at galleries in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and San Francisco. His work has been featured in a number of texts including Concordia Yawls, The First Fifty Years, by Elizabeth Meyer, Marine Painting and Yachts on Canvas, by James Taylor, Yacht Portraits published by Sheridan House, A Gallery of Marine Art, Rockport Publishers, Marine Painting, Techniques of Modern Masters, Watson-Guptill, and Bound for Blue Water, by J. Russell Jinishian. Demers has also gained vast recognition as a fine arts educator and reaches countless museums, art associations, yacht clubs, historical societies, educational institutions and students through his workshops and lectures, held in widespread places including Bordeaux, France, Dingle, Ireland, and Maui, Hawaii. His memberships include the American Society of Marine Artists and the Guild of Boston Artists.
In 2009, Demers’ work could be seen in the American Society of Marine Artists’ 30th Anniversary National Exhibition. In the fall of 2010, Vose Galleries proudly displayed our first solo exhibition of Demers’ paintings, followed up by a second show in the fall of 2013, and he was featured by the gallery at the 14th and 17th Annual Boston International Fine Arts Shows. Whether studying the sea from his 35-foot sloop or gathering information on small-scale oil and casein studies from the shoreline and woodlands, Demers prefers to work from nature, rather than from photo reference. His paintings embody the freshness of the natural world and the discerning eyes of an artist.
