Jonathan Eiten, “Red Pitcher with Bowl of Apples,” 2019, oil on canvas Courtesy of the artist

In 1989, the Michigan-born painter Jonathan Eiten journeyed to The Netherlands on a study abroad program, where he became enamored of 17th-century Dutch still life painting. The debt he owes to the artists he discovered there — masters such as Pieter Claesz, Willem Claeszoon Heda and Willem Kalf — is apparent in “Jonathan Eiten” (through March 30) at Bridgton’s Aperto Fine Art.

Further, the looser, more impressionistic hand Eiten adopts within this genre is due at least partially to a second trip years later, during which the now Gorham-based artist discovered contemporary Dutch Realism as personified by painters such as Mario ter Braak, Gerard Boersma, Annemarie Busschers and others.

Jonathan Eiten, “Gooseneck Kettle Still Life,” 2017, oil on panel Courtesy of the artist

What made the era of 17th-century Dutch still life painting so memorable was, most certainly, its bravura technical skill and brooding chiaroscuro lighting. These artists’ ability to convey the richness of textures — glass, silver, porcelain, artfully draped tablecloths, carpets and food items like grapes, peeled citrus fruits and bread — created mesmerizing effects, especially as they were cloaked in dramatically dim light and gloomy shadow. They were compositionally complex, sumptuous in their mounding of edibles, and the way everything clustered together in an appealing asymmetry gave the scene a hint of disarray.

But they also carried moral weight by implicitly suggesting the ephemerality of human life through symbols people of the era would have understood: Goblets of wine were half-drunk or tipped on their sides. Plumes of smoke rose from recently snuffed candles. The rinds of partially peeled lemons or oranges spiraled off the edges of tables. Occasionally a skull appeared somewhere amid the feast. These works, called vanitas paintings, depicted a literal banquet — but also, metaphorically, the banquet of life — abruptly cut short, as though the host had departed the table in unexpected haste.

Jonathan Eiten, “Pescatarian’s Delight,” 2012, oil on panel Courtesy of the artist

The best of Eiten’s paintings here display many of these elements. “Pescatarian’s Delight” is one. The half-peeled blood orange, the draped white tablecloth, the reflections on the glass bottle, the wood of the harvest table and the food, of course — a fish awaiting cooking, the bright greens of leeks, a pair of red onions – all are here, realistically and fetchingly rendered. The composition is also asymmetrical and the light moody, though brighter than most of its 17th-century Dutch antecedents.

Jonathan Eiten, “Japanese Tea Pot Still Life,” 2017, oil on panel Courtesy of the artist

Others, like “Japanese Teapot Still Life,” appear to be more modern in their sensibility, related to contemporary Dutch Realism, of course, but also embodying some of the quiet stillness, stylized technique and tonal sensitivities of Italian modernist still life artist Giorgio Morandi.

Some paintings have clear references to Dutch progenitors. Would Eiten have painted “Flycatcher Portrait,” for instance, without knowledge of Carel Fabritius’s famous “The Goldfinch”? But whether or not this is true, “Flycatcher” is an unabashedly beautiful and skillful painting.

Yet I hesitate to promote the impression that Eiten is merely aping his 17th-century idols. He departs from them in various ways. For starters, the brighter lighting in “Pescatarian’s Delight” is pervasive, indicating that his paintings feel less shadowy and portentous. Though there are occasional appearances of symbolic vanitas staples (the partially peeled orange, the skull in “Nest and Books Vanitas”), most do not emanate the spiritual gravity of the Dutch masters.

Jonathan Eiten, “Flycatcher Portrait,” 2025, oil on panel Courtesy of the artist

There are instances when Eiten’s experiments don’t quite pay off. Sometimes the compositions strain credulity, as with “Taste of Summer,” a rather quaintly titled image of corn cobs, a milk pail and a red lobster on a plate that’s so impossibly steeply perched that we know in real life it would slide right off the platter onto the floor. “Danish Tea Cup Tromp L’oeil,” a tea cup hanging on a nail driven into a wall covered with peeling wallpaper, would probably have been better without the implausible addition of a tea bag dangling from it.

Occasionally his groupings of objects feel incongruous, none more so than “Safe Keeping,” in which Eiten assembles atop a red-painted table, four bird nests — two with family photos oddly stuffed into them — all resting on a folded length of bubble wrap and some packing paper. The title here might be sentimentally pointing out the need for us to delicately store fragile objects of memory (which itself feels corny), as well as possibly explaining how these disparate elements landed here. But more fundamentally, it feels like an exercise through which the artist can demonstrate his virtuosity at capturing multiple textures in one image.

Jonathan Eiten, “Coffee Table with Truffles,” 2009, oil on panel Courtesy of the artist

Several titles, in fact, feel mawkish. Exhibit A: “Artist’s Allegory,” where Eiten collects a violin, an artist’s palette, a book, a bird’s nest, a coffee pot, a bottle and a ceramic pitcher. Get it? Or there’s “A Toast with Mahjong” — four mahjong tiles around a green bottle (which happens to be empty, so not much toasting going on there).

The latter painting, as well as works such as “Idle Fancy,” “Silver Trumpet on Copper” and “Artist’s Allegory,” also reveal a penchant for compositions with a prominent vertical element at center (bottle, trumpet, violin…whatever). The pleasing asymmetry of 17th-century Dutch compositions gave them a more natural feel, whereas this strong central anchor in some of Eiten’s works makes them appear stiff and a bit contrived.

Still, there is a lot to love here. “East Meets West: Chinese Urn with Mahjong Tiles,” “Gooseneck Kettle Still Life,” “Red Pitcher with Bowl of Apples” and the simply sublime “Healing Agents” are all wonderful, accomplished paintings, at once hagiographic and more contemporary in their pared-down composition. For the most part, it is a lovely exhibition showcasing a genre we rarely see these days.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: “Jonathan Eiten”

WHERE: Aperto Fine Art, 63 Maine St., Bridgton

WHEN: Through March 30

HOURS: Noon-6 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday

ADMISSION: Free

INFO: apertofineart.com, 207-291-4245

PORTLAND AREA

Cove St. Arts, 71 Cove St., 207-808-8911, covestreetarts.com “What Calm!” (through March 29), multimedia paintings by Kelly McConnell. “Color Therapy” (through March 15. Artists Matt Blackwell, Jon Imber, Daniel Minter, Kathi Smith, Ed Douglas, Frederick Lynch, Mauride Freedman, Jeff Bye, Nancy Morgan Barns. “Fiber & Fire” (through April 12), textile works of On Keyong Seong paired with ceramics by Jonathan Mess. “Munjoy Hill & the Portland Waterfront: 50 Years” (through April 5), photography.

Greenhut Galleries, 146 Middle St., 207-772-2693, greenhutgalleries.me “Maine: The Painted State” (Thursday through April 26). The gallery’s biennial landscape show.

Institute of Contemporary Art, 522 Congress St., 800-639-4808, meca.edu/ica “Assembly: 2025 Maine College of Art & Design Alumni Triennial” (through April 6). Curated by Kiko Aebi, Katz Curator at the Colby Collect Museum of Art.

Moss Galleries Falmouth, 251 Route 1, 207-781-2620, elizabethmossgalleries.com “Jessica Gandolf: Some Assembly Required” and “Elijah Ober: Proto-Carrot” (both through April 5). Gandolf’s new paintings synthesize several former bodies of work and seemingly disparate inspirational sources into a surprisingly vibrant, emotionally charged show, and Ober’s UV resin 3D-printed flower sculptures riff on the beauty of Queen Anne’s Lace.

Portland Museum of Art, 7 Congress Square, 207-775-6148, portlandmuseum.org “As We Are” (through April 7), a survey of 14 emerging Maine artists. “Jo Sandman: Skin Deep” (through April 27), a small show of the new acquisition of a dozen photograms by Sandman of snake skins arranged as hieroglyphs.

Space, 534-538 Congress St., 207-282-5600, space538.org “Collective Marks: Six Years of Print Jam,” (through March 22) includes print work from over 100 artists.

University of New England Museum, 716 Stevens Ave., 207-602-3000, library.une.edu/art-galleries “Circle of the Sun” (Friday though June 8), featuring the work of Justin Levesque, Katie McElearney and Shoshannah White, three alumni artists of the Arctic Circle Residency with connections to Maine.

ROCKLAND AREA

Caldbeck Gallery, 12 Elm St., 207-594-4935, caldbeck.com “March On!” (Friday through April 26) is an evolving group show of paintings and sculpture.

Center for Maine Contemporary Art, 21 Winter St., Rockland, 207-701-5005, cmcanow.org “I Forgot to Remember | Katarina Weslien” (through May 4), a multimedia installation exploring the tension between safety/comfort and danger/pain as evoked through objects and textures. “From the Collection of Lord Red | Kyle Downs” (through May 4), from pop culture to ritualistic objects imagined through the medium of repurposed basketball rubber. “The Sun, Trying to Disappear,” Dylan Hausthor curates a show of six photographers whose work references histories of utopia, futurism, landscape and defiance. “Fruition | Allison Cekala + Nate Luce” embodies the holistic approach to life of these two artists, where there is no separation between art, work and life.

Farnsworth Art Museum, 16 Museum St., Rockland, farnsworthmuseum.org “Re-Indigenizing Sacred Landscapes: From the Wigwan at Catawankeag” (through Jan. 4, 2026) looks at painters who depicted Maine from the 18th to early 20th centuries, but overlooked the Native communities living there. “Native Prospects: Indigeneity and Landscape” (Saturday through July 6) juxtaposes landscape paintings of Thomas Cole that feature Native figures with Indigenous approaches to the articulation of land. “Anne Buckwalter: Manors” presents site-specific murals that amplify the artist’s provocative domesticity, which thrums with erotic undercurrents that belie the seemingly quaint interiors we perceive on the surface.

Interloc Gallery, 153 Main St., Thomaston, interloc.co “Spring Show” (March 15 through May 3). Work by Bee Daniel, Fred Gutzeit and Sara States (book signing 6-8 p.m. Saturday, Dylan Hausthor’s debut release, “What the Rain Might Bring”).

Triangle Gallery, 8 Elm St., 207-593-8300, gallerytriangle.com “Spring Show I” (Wednesday through March 29). Work by various gallery artists.

OTHER LOCATIONS

Bowdoin College Museum of Art, 245 Maine St., Brunswick, 207-725-3275 Bowdoin.edu/art-museum “Poetic Truths: Hawthorne, Longfellow, and American Visual Culture, 1840-1880” (through July 20) explores portraits, landscapes, objects and other works inspired by the prolific output of these two American literary giants. “Art, Ecology, and the Resilience of a Maine Island: The Monhegan Wildlands” (through June 1) looks at artworks created on this famous creative colony through the cyclical lens of its natural environment.

Colby College Museum of Art, 5600 Mayflower Hill, Waterville, 207-859-5600, museum-exhibitions.colby.edu “Stan Douglas | Hors-champs” (through Aug. 24). Douglas examines intersections between race, class and power through photography, film, installation and interactive augmented reality. “Radical Histories: Chicanx Prints from the Smithsonian American Art Museum” (through June 8), 60 prints focused on artists creating visual counter-histories that interrogate American exceptionalism, heteronormativity, whiteness and more. “Square + Triangle: Home in the Colby Museum’s Collection” (through April 21) looks at various perspectives on home, domesticity and placemaking.

The Parsonage Gallery, 8 Elm St., Searsport, parsonagegallery.org “Portal: Heather Lyon” and “3rd Annual Winter Exhibition” (both extended through April). Lyon offers an organic, transformative experience of walking through our current reality into something redemptive and hopeful. The winter exhibition presents work by Jennifer Amadeo-Holl, Avy Claire, Nina Jerome, Keri Kimura, Frederick Kuhn, Nathaniel Meyer, Jean Michel, Garry Mitchell, Matthew Russ, Lesia Schor, Kevin Sudeith and Sara Szwajkos.

University of New England (Biddeford), 11 Hills Beach Road, Biddeford, 207-602-3000, library.une.edu/art-galleries “As Above, So Below” features work by Liz Awalt and C. Michael Lewis, who offer unique viewpoints on the Earth intended to elicit a range of emotional and intellectual responses to inhabiting our world.

University of Southern Maine Art Gallery, 5 University Way, Gorham, 207-780-5409, usm.maine.edu/gallery “Reverberations: The 2025 Juried Student Exhibition” (through March 30), which will center around the theme of “reverberation.”