The artist of the month at the Southport Memorial Library for July and August is photographer and painter David Higgins, a native Mainer who resides in Newcastle. He is exhibiting paintings and digital images including new work, images from his popular Boats & Harbors series and something brand new – digital painting.

Higgins began his exploration of art during his teens. He worked mainly in the photographic medium for many years and returned to painting in 2005. His long experience working in film provides a foundation for his digital work that he finds gives him limitless opportunities for self-expression. His in depth explorations of color and composition inform both his photography and his painting. Recently, the combination of the two led Higgins to explore the new medium of digital painting.

Using a tablet and Photoshop software, Higgins applies painting techniques to images on his computer. Each digital painting is loosely based on one of his photographs. The first step is to break up and destroy all of the photographic detail by blocking out the major sections of color with a large brush much in the way a painter starts a work on canvas. By use of progressively smaller brushes, areas of the image are selectively painted in, and color and detail are built up. The whole process is accomplished electronically to develop a multi-layered approach similar to painting with a real brush and real paint. The object is not to reproduce the photo but use it as a departure point to change and develop a completely new piece of art.

Born in Portland, Higgins is a graduate of Central Maine Vocational Technical School, the University of Southern Maine, and Vermont College, where he earned a master’s degree in fine arts-visual art. He was a long-time graphic arts teacher at Kennett High School in Conway, N.H. before returning to the Maine coast ten years ago. Since then he taught at various arts organizations and other teaching venues as well as engaging in commercial photography and graphic design. Higgins was the juror and curator of two annual and two invitational photography shows at the Chocolate Church Arts Center in recent years. His work appears in regional and national publications, and he exhibits throughout Maine and the Northeast. More of his work can be seen on his website.

You can see this local show during July and August at the Southport Memorial Library located at 1032 Hendricks Hill Road at the southern tip of Southport Island. The exhibit will be on view during the library’s regular hours, which are Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. with evening hours Tuesday and Thursday from 7 to 9 p.m. The phone number is 633-2741.