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On View: July 23, 2024 – October 31, 2024 (Falmouth, Massachusetts): Highfield Hall & Gardens is pleased to announce the exhibition From Nantucket to Lahaina: A Fifty-Year Journey of a Plein Air Painter, opening July 23, 2024. For fifty years Paul Arsenault, a prolific and well-traveled painter, embedded himself into his subject matter-some say as deep as paint will seep into his canvas and even deeper. This retrospective brings the artist back to Woods Hole after 50 years when he first signed on to the RV Gosnold as a deckhand. Paul’s subsequent travels allowed him to inhabit and document many soulful waterfront destinations, rendering international and domestic maritime scenes while acknowledging local and indigenous heritage. His love of history and adventurous spirit heighten his appreciation of the cultures he is privileged to experience. The selected works cover ports found in New England, Florida, Europe, the Caribbean, Australia, Asia, and the Pacific islands. Increasingly aware of the impacts of development and climate change on these fragile places, Arsenault strives to use his art to bring attention to issues and to possible solutions. Paul Arsenault brilliantly captures and recalls stories of pioneer characters, infusing his work with more layers of heritage and anecdotal gems. Utilizing his facility with painting plein air, Paul’s colorful work expresses the unique essence of place, concentrating mostly on the waterfront, and emphasizing balance, beauty, and scale. In one such iconic and last of the era images from the turn of the 19th century, a student at the Hawthorne school is captured painting a schooner up against docks in Provincetown. The schooner itself, the Marjory Austin, was owned by his grandfather, but more importantly the painting captures the waning days of trade by sail before it gave way to steam. As potent as they are as an entire installation, the artists’ retelling of his experience painting on location will fascinate viewers. Arsenault was born of the sea - his family’s roots go back to the harbor towns of New Brunswick, New England, and earlier, La Rochelle, France. He grew up in a picturesque New England harbor town which gave him an appreciation for waterfront communities, and as a son of a son of a sailor, the importance of maritime heritage throughout history resonates throughout his work. Seasonal Gallery Hours: Tuesday– Friday, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm Saturday & Sunday 10:00 am – 2:00 pm About Highfield Hall & Gardens The house is a rare surviving example of transitional Stick Style architecture, containing beautiful gardens located in the heart of Falmouth, Massachusetts. It is a unique combination of a historic house, expansive gardens and trails, and a vibrant cultural center. Built in 1878 as the summer home for Boston's Beebe family, the house sits on 5.5 pristine acres surrounded by nearly 400 acres of conservation land and public walking trails. Highfield Hall & Gardens is not your typical historic estate. It is an example of a historic building saved by grassroots community organizing. An effort of tenacity and vision that continues as new research on the structure and its story of the people who lived here add to the building's significance. It offers world-class music, international art exhibitions, culinary classes, family programs, and year-round special events. For more information, visit www.highfieldhallandgardens.org.