Art Round Town

Art Round Town

by | Jul 2, 2025

Art Round Town, free first fridays, 5-8pm written above an image of two people talking inside a gallery.

We’ll be open until 8 p.m. every First Friday for Art ‘Round Town!

Free admission all day long.

Visit our most recent exhibition, “Cabot Lyford: Winds of Change” and view highlights from our permanent collection in our “Past & Present” exhibition.

In addition to being open until 8 pm, our August ART will feature live music performed by Julia Lane, artist Cabot Lyford’s daughter, at 12pm and 5:30pm!

Julia Lyford Lane, daughter of sculptor Cabot Lyford, is an award-winning player of the Celtic Harp. She has performed with her husband, Fred Gosbee, as the duo Castlebay for 30 years throughout the Eastern US, British Isles, Ireland, and Scotland. In addition to his musical expertise, Gosbee is a skilled luthier, having designed and built Celtic harps, guitars, and lutes. Several years ago, Cabot Lyford gifted the couple with a carved female figurehead to be placed on the pillar of one of Gosbee’s harps. Lyford passed away in 2016 before Fred could design and build a harp big enough to accommodate the sculpture. This past spring, coinciding with what would have been Cabot’s 100th birthday, the harp was completed and, after settling into its final form, is ready to be played in honor of the sculptor. 
 
Join Julia for a short presentation at both noon and 5:30pm about the instrument and then listen as she brings it to life playing music as people enjoy a spectrum of art from Cabot’s extraordinary career. 
Add the 12:00 pm curator tour to your calendar

Don’t forget about our free curator tours!

July 2026

August 2026

September 2026

Art Round Town

Art Round Town

by | Jun 3, 2025

Art Round Town, free first fridays, 5-8pm written above an image of two people talking inside a gallery.

We’ll be open until 8 p.m. every First Friday for Art ‘Round Town!

Free admission all day long.

Visit our most recent exhibition, “Cabot Lyford: Winds of Change” and view highlights from our permanent collection in our “Past & Present” exhibition.

Add the 12:00 pm curator tour to your calendar

Don’t forget about our free curator tours!

July 2026

August 2026

September 2026

Art Round Town

Art Round Town with Priscilla French

by | May 19, 2025

Art Round Town, free first fridays, 5-8pm written above an image of two people talking inside a gallery.

We’ll be open until 8 p.m. every First Friday for Art ‘Round Town!

Free admission all day long.

Visit our most recent exhibition, “Cabot Lyford: Winds of Change” and view highlights from our permanent collection in our “Past & Present” exhibition.

Priscilla French
About the Artist:
Priscilla French began sketching as a young girl using pastels and paints and took a life-changing drawing class in college that opened her eyes to different ways of seeing. Since moving to Portsmouth, NH in 1985 she has studied watercolor consistently with esteemed teachers and artists Doris Rice, DeWitt Hardy and Russell Whitten – and will never stop! She has taught both studio art and art history at the high school level and was recently accepted as a juried member of the New Hampshire Art Association.

Don’t forget about our free curator tours!

July 2026

August 2026

September 2026

“Contemporary Currents” Awards Ceremony

“Contemporary Currents” Awards Ceremony

by | Apr 22, 2025

Contemporary Currents Awards Ceremony. May 2, 5-8 at the Portsmotuh Historical Society. Admission free all day long

“Contemporary Currents” Awards Ceremony

Friday, April 4, 5–8 pm

Join Portsmouth Historical Society and the New Hampshire Art Association for the Awards Ceremony for Contemporary Currents during Art Round Town on Friday, May 2, from 5–8 PM. This dynamic exhibition explores themes of advocacy and experimentation in art, offering a contemporary response to Seacoast artist Cabot Lyford’s works on view in the adjoining gallery.
Enjoy an evening of art, conversation, and community. All works are available for purchase, with proceeds benefiting local artists, Portsmouth Historical Society, and the New Hampshire Art Association. Don’t miss this inspiring celebration of artistic innovation!

This event is free and open to the public.

Learn more about "Contemporary Currents"
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Contemporary Currents

Contemporary Currents

by | Apr 1, 2025 | Exhibitions

Marbled background with contemporary current on it.

April 4 —November 15, 2025

Portsmouth Historical Society is once again joining forces with New Hampshire Art Association in 2025. This exhibition will be a contemporary response to the themes addressed in “Winds of Change,” the retrospective of Cabot Lyford opening through November 2, 2025.

Originally incorporated in 1940, New Hampshire Art Association (NHAA) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit contemporary arts organization dedicated to presenting and supporting emerging regional art and artists in New England. In 1990, the NHAA opened its doors in Portsmouth, New Hampshire at 136 State Street. Thanks to philanthropists, lenders, and leadership who recognized the need for a community space to support the visual arts.

The call for art for “Contemporary Currents” will focus on the themes of experimentation and advocacy through art, major themes addressed in “Cabot Lyford, Winds of Change” on the ground floor.

More than forty artists from across the Seacoast and the state of New Hampshire have work on display in the balcony gallery in an astonishing range of media, techniques, and topics. All the works are available for purchase to benefit the New Hampshire Art Association, Portsmouth Historical Society, and most of all, the artists!

View the Online Gallery

Judges’ Awards

As part of the jurying process, our three judges also chose three winners as well as three honorable mentions. The winners were awarded a monetary prize generously donated by the Puddle Dock Restaurant

Tom Berger

Halibut

Styrofoam, Aqua-Resin, spackling, Sculpey modeling clay, primer, paint, 24k gold leaf, lacquer

25 x 55 x 6 inches

$2,800

 

Link to purchase

🌐 www.thomasbergersculpture.com

 

Lyford would have enjoyed this monumental, naturalistic sculpture of a flatfish that embodies his interest in unusual materials as well as animal forms (see his frogs, chickens, crabs, cats, and other forms downstairs).  Halibut, massive in appearance, is actually relatively light in weight.  Its large core is fashioned from Styrofoam coated with Aqua-Resin.  Some of the details are cut with a woodburning tool, while the scary teeth are modeled in polymer clay. The bulbous, protruding eyes are colored with gold leaf, paint, and lacquer.  In all, the work is an extraordinary tribute to a once-common but now endangered species.

 

Known for his direct carving of granite and other stones, Lyford would perhaps have been attracted to this view of a hard-working man’s outstretched hands holding shards and chips of a white stone.  One perhaps first notices that these are roughened, callused hands, clearly used to demanding physical work of the kind necessary to create Lyford’s characteristic monuments and sculptures.   A closer examination reveals that the person in the image is missing the index finger on his scarred right hand, testimony to the inherent dangers of hard manual labor.

Tom Cawthon

Hands of Stone

Giclée on fine art paper printed with archival inks

16½ x 24 x 1½ inches

$425

 

Link to purchase

🌐 www.tomcawthonphotography.com

 

Here, the artist has painted a landscape on fire, seen through a window, evoking the wildfires that have plagued California and other areas in recent years. A closer look indicates that the fire is moving inside (as the curtains have begun to ignite) and causes us to recognize the fact that some issues (well beyond wildfires) can occupy both inner and outer mental and physical spaces, and that, upon reflection, many problems that we think are only external can also be internal as well. Lyford would have enjoyed the powerful, yet subtle, thought-provoking nature of this work.

Krysten Marche

Domestic

Acrylic on canvas, handmade frame

36 x 36 x 2 inches

$2,800

 

Link to purchase

Marilene Sawaf

Currents of Life through Sea, Nature, and Music

Casein, claybord, gold leaf, glass, metal, resin, gold metal

30 x 24 x 2 inches

$3,500

This striking painting makes use of gold leaf, resin, metal, and glass, as well as acrylic and casein paint, to create a powerful, dramatic image that is a swirling symphony of color, figures, action, and massing.  It relates well to Lyford’s interest in experimentation, diverse materials, and bold imagery.  

 

Link to purchase

 

🌐 www.marilenesawaf.com

Beneath the abstract colorful appearance of this collage is a more sinister message. The small dots that appear to float in a waterscape are, on reflection, suggestions of the microplastics that are found in abundance in the ocean and that we ingest on a regular basis. Lyford was an advocate for protecting the environment and might well have been delighted with this subtle, yet powerful, condemnation of our reckless attitudes toward Nature.

🌐 www.joannadinolfi.com

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JoAnn Adinolfi

Plastic Currents

Digital photographic collage

20 x 16 inches

$250

 Link to purchase

Maria Oakley

Absolutely Nothing

Mixed media

20 x 16 x 2 inches

$850

Link to purchase

IG logo @mariapoakleyart

At first glance, this painting appears to be a colorful, pleasing landscape of clouds, mountains, and people.  A closer look reveals that the clouds are mushroom clouds, the figures are armed soldiers, and that little, three-dimensional toy missiles are raining down from the sky.  With its combination of high aesthetic quality, use of a variety of materials, and underlying political message (also conveyed by its title),  Absolutely Nothing is a worthy contemporary evocation of Cabot Lyford’s commitment to experimentation and anti-war sentiment.

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