Trompe l’oeil is a fancy but useful art term for illusionistic painting. Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel comes to mind, but there are several accessible examples around Portland, including the building-sized “Blueprint” at 40 Free St., in which a life-sized architectural drawing appears superimposed on a real building. The humor of the piece is underscored by how […]

On stage • A new Shakespeare play? Hardly seems plausible. See for yourself at 8 p.m. Monday, when the Acorn Shakespeare Ensemble continues the company’s 2010-11 season with another edition of the troupe’s “Sonnet and Soliloquies” series at the Wine Bar on Wharf Street in Portland. Monday’s pre-election edition will feature four selections from “Double […]

YARMOUTH – The majestic elm tree known as Herbie succumbed to the ravages of Dutch elm disease this past winter. But Herbie’s legacy lives on. A group of artists from Yarmouth has kept the memory of the 217-year-old elm alive with an exhibition, “Majesty of Trees,” at Merrill Memorial Library. The exhibition includes two distinct […]

CAPE PORPOISE — We had a 20-minute wait to sit down in a bar called the Ramp, literally down a ramp from the pavement at this scenic point of land. But I was more than content. For one, we’d been intending to review a place up the road, had called to confirm it was open […]

PORTLAND – Ahmed Alsoudani came to Portland in 2001 with faint knowledge of Western society and minimal training in art. He left four years later with a degree from Maine College of Art and the confidence that he could make his life as a painter. Alsoudani, who grew up in Iraq and now lives in […]