Andre Benoit’s patients admire him not just for providing care, but also for painting pictures that are giving the physician a second career.
But Dr. Benoit isn’t quitting his day job.
The Boothbay Harbor doctor this spring mounted his first major show at Bowdoin College, and he sold several paintings right away at an opening reception. One of the happy customers was the West Boothbay Harbor postmaster, Irene Reilly, who bought a painting of Damariscove Island.
Two other Benoit fans are columnist-author-sailor Roger Duncan, 91, of East Boothbay, who came to see the show with his wife, Mary, 92. Benoit has sailed with the Duncans.
Andy Abello, a furniture builder from Edgecomb who also paints, said Benoit is both friend and physician.
Ted and Susan Reiner of Cliff Island were among old friends of Benoit’s, on hand for an opening reception at the student union.
Boothbay Harbor photographer Steve Rubicam said Dr. Benoit, on staff at St. Andrew’s Hospital in Boothbay Harbor, has gained confidence in painting the places he loves. A lot of those places are islands he has sailed to: Whitehead, Brimstone, Cliff, Monhegan, Eaton, Hurricane, Marshall.
is watercolors and oils are “plein-air” — outdoors and sensitive to light and shadow — typically in a natural setting.
Benoit completes his paintings in one sitting, and they are representational.
He credits Rockwell Kent, Edward Hopper, Marsden Hartley and others as having influenced his art.
He was quietly pleased to see a crowd turn out to see his art, and said he was grateful to Bowdoin for hosting the show. Members of his family have attended Bowdoin including his sister Joan of Freeport, an Olympic gold medalist, and brother Peter of Alaska. Andre Benoit himself graduated from the University of New Hampshire. q
— Steve Cartwright