Sculpture from the estate of Whitefield artist Roger Majorowicz will be sold at auction on Saturday, Aug. 1. The internationally known and Maine revered artist died at Christmas time last year at age 83.

Raised on a ranch in Lakota Sioux territory of South Dakota, Majorowicz showed an early talent for art. After a stint in the service, he completed a degree in art at the Minneapolis School of Art. He attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and traveled to Florence, Italy, on a Fulbright Scholarship. He began his career as a cartoonist, but soon gravitated to sculpture.

"He didn't like two dimensional painting. His favorite color was rust,” said Mary Majorowicz, his widow, from their house in Whitefield.

Majorowicz taught for many years at the Maryland Institute, College of Art in Baltimore. Many of his earlier sculptures can be seen in public buildings in Baltimore.

He and his wife-to-be, Mary, moved to Maine in 1981. He set up his forge and sculpture studio in the el of the couple’s large rambling farmhouse in the Kings Mills section of Whitefield. He went about collecting metal objects from farm machinery to ax heads. Many of his pieces became part of large public sculptures that were commissioned under Maine’s Percent for Art Program.

“He has pieces from Berwick to Fort Fairfield, from Bethel to Calais,” said Mary.

Locally, some of his large sculptures are displayed in the field across from his house on Route 218 in Kings Mills.

“He always had the West in mind. If a blacksmith could do it, so could he,” said Mary.

Several of his favorite pieces will not go to auction on Saturday including a bronze bull that he was commissioned to do in Minneapolis that then traveled to Italy back to Chicago to New York and then to Maine.

"It was one of his favorites,” she said.

Majorowicz took a strong interest in his community and served on the volunteer fire department, as the auctioneer on the Fourth of July in Kings Mills, and taught young people how to weld.

“He loved Whitefield,” she said.

The auction will be conducted by Farrin’s Country Auctions, Inc. of Randolph beginning at 10 a.m. and utilizing two auctioneers, one for tools and the other for art and personal items. The location is 32 Wiscasset Road (Route 218) in Whitefield. For more information, call 1-800-474-2507.