About

A painter of bold, primitive images of northern Maine

Philip Barter was born in Boothbay Harbor, Maine in 1939 and has always had an interest in art.  He studied with Spanish abstract expressionist Alfonso Sosa in California in the 1960's, and also with Fritz Rockwell after returning to Maine.  He was influenced by their use of bold form and color.  Since the time that Philip started exhibiting in the 1960's, his work has been shown in major museums and collections world-wide, and can be seen exhibited in galleries in and around Maine.

...One of Maine's leading regionalist painters. A prolific artist, his paintings, nearly two thousand in number, are scattered throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe, in both individual and corporate collections... A leading regionalist folk-art painter and interpreter of Maine's Down East experience.

– Davistown Museum (Maine)

The appeal of Barter's stylized renderings of trees and rivers, mountains and clouds, is powerful. His ability to extract the essence of the landscape provokes marvel. He sees the geometry of a peak, the jagged coursing of woodland streams, a snowfield's curving contours. His palette, often not for the faint of hue, underscores his lively vision.

– Carl Little, Maine art critic and author

From a virtual unknown artist in 1966, when he began painting at 26, Philip Barter has emerged as one of Maine's most imaginative, diversified, and prolific artists... his reputation as an innovative stylist and eye-wowing colorist borders on wizardry.

– Lyle Roger North, "Philip Barter: The Maine Experience"