September 15 – October 15, 2021

Master Effect: Jon Imber and Linda Packard

Opening Reception: Wednesday, September 15 from 5–7pm

ZOOM TALK: Wednesday, September 29 from 5–6pm
Jon Imber’s wife Jill Hoy will join Linda Packard and Gallery Director Karin Wilkes on Zoom to talk about the show and how Imber influenced Packard’s work.Click here to Register.

Master Effect Courthouse Gallery is pleased to introduce the work of Jon Imber (1950–2014) to the Gallery with Master Effect, an exhibition highlighting the influence Imber had on Linda Packard, one of the Gallery’s long-standing artists.

The profound works of the masters are part of a continuum that have inspired artists for centuries. Imber studied with Philip Guston at Boston University, and often cited Willem de Kooning as a strong influence. For Packard influences include Cezanne and Matisse, the New York abstract expressionists, and Imber. Packard had the privilege of working with Imber in Stonington for five years before he died. During this time, Packard worked from life, as did Imber, mostly plein air. “Imber taught me an entirely new way of looking at nature and the landscape. Painting from life became about responding to the experience of being at a place rather than recording the subject.” This approach changed Packard’s work forever, and she cites Imber as her most important influence.

Others have noticed the connection between Imber and Packard. In a recent Portland Magazine article (February/March 2021) about artists and their influences and mentors, art critic and historian Daniel Kany paired the late Maine painter Jon Imber with contemporary painter Linda Packard. The article, “Fuel of Influence,” firmly establishes Packard as one of Imber’s protégés.

Although Imber’s influence is evident in Packard’s work, the translucent effect she achieves with paint is clearly her own. “I think our strongest common denomination is that’s it’s all about the paint, Packard says. “The paint drives the expression. Through Jon I learned the joy of working with juicy paint, scraping and rubbing out, and welcoming the happy accident that sometimes redirects the work.”

As a result, Packard has since transitioned from plein air to a totally process driven studio practice with a focus on abstraction. “As my work has evolved, subjective or abstracted, it’s the paint and how it can be used that interests me the most,” Packard says. “That’s Imber’s influence.”