PORTLAND — In a little more than month, a small herd of deer will take up residence near Portland International Jetport.

“Lumbering Stag,” “Grazing Doe” and “Scratching Doe” will be part of a menagerie — it also includes a porcupine, a wolf and three other deer — that will occupy two relatively open knolls along the access road from Congress Street to the terminal.

Additional Photos

This sculpture by New York artist Wendy Klemperer, "Grazing Doe," is among several similar works now at Maine Audubon's Gilsland Farm in Falmouth. The sculptures will be moved to the Portland International Jetport next month. Contributed photo

The animals are metal sculptures designed to further enhance a sense of serenity that airport officials tried to create with a tree-lined, winding entrance to the terminal.

The sculptures were created by New York artist Wendy Klemperer, and most have been at Maine Audubon’s Gilsland Farm in Falmouth for the past year.

William D. Hamill of Yarmouth is buying the pieces and donating them to the city for use at the airport. Attempts to reach Hamill, who is a board member of the Portland Museum of Art, were unsuccessful Monday.

“It’s nice that William Hamill likes the work enough to buy a whole herd,” Klemperer said in a telephone interview.

The donation has been accepted by the Portland Public Arts Committee and must be ratified by the City Council to officially become part of the city’s art collection. That will likely occur next month and the sculptures will be installed in early September, before the new expansion of the airport terminal officially opens in early October.

The artwork will not cost the city anything; Hamill is underwriting most of the cost of installation, although it’s expected that jetport workers will do some of the preparatory work on the areas where the sculptures will be located.

Pandora LaCasse, a member of the Public Arts Committee, said the panel was drawn to the pieces for a variety of reasons, including the slightly abstract nature of the work. The sculptures aren’t designed to be realistic depictions of the animals, yet their resemblance to the native fauna will add to the tranquil and natural approach to the airport that city officials have tried to evoke.

The sculptures create “a sense of a moment in time” with a herd grazing peacefully, he said.

For that reason, the question of where to locate the howling wolf is still open.

LaCasse said putting a predator near the herd suggests a narrative to the sculpture — that the wolf is stalking the herd — that neither the artist nor the city is trying to convey.

“Maybe it’s not for this site,” she said of the wolf, “but there are lots of other sites around the jetport.”

The idea of the donation came from June LaCombe, a Pownal resident who represents Klemperer and other sculptors. She said she recently struck up a conversation with Paul Bradbury, the jetport manager, and asked him whether there was any new artwork connected to the airport expansion. Bradbury said he liked the idea of more artwork, but there was no money in the budget.

LaCombe said she then contacted Hamill and Klemperer and proposed the donation.

The animal artwork “speaks to Maine’s natural history heritage.” LaCombe said. “It speaks well for the city of Portland and Maine to have this art. They’re sketches in steel.”

Bradbury said the deer will help create a sense of place for the airport, much like the “Welcome Home” banners on jetways at the airport decorated with drawings of lobster and moose.

“What we sell is a location, and that’s Portland and the state of Maine,” he said, a sense that will be enhanced by the sculptures.

Bradbury said he also likes that the steel Klemperer used in her artwork is recycled; it meshes well with the city’s attempts to make the terminal, which uses geothermal energy for heating and cooling and strives to be energy-efficient, as environmentally friendly as possible.

Staff Writer Edward D. Murphy can be contacted at 791-6465 or at: emurphy@pressherald.com

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