Joshua Ferry

Maine Home + Design Magazine

Painting as Discovery

Making use of words, maps, flags, and found Internet photos, Joshua Ferry makes paintings that are occasionally political, often colorful, and always graphically bold. Constructed from many layers of applied and sanded paint, the surfaces of his works are as complex as his imagery is simple and direct.

For three years after graduating from Maine College of Art in 1994, Ferry worked as a woodworker and furniture finisher at Windsor Chairmakers in Lincolnville. “Sanding,” he says, “became an important part of my painting process which continues to this day.” This attention to surface texture and his affinity for abstract work can be traced to his studies at MECA with Johnnie Winona Ross and James Cambronne, two of Maine’s most distinguished abstractionists. “My best paintings force me to embark on an investigative journey rather than simply depict an idea,” says Ferry. “Ultimately I like to be surprised by my work.”

A case in point is Pros and Cons, a mixed-media work from 2007 that began as a grid of gray squares from which the colored cross shapes emerged during the painting process, suggesting to the artist an altar cloth or religious banner. He also interpreted the crosses as plus signs, and his reaction was to paint negative or minus signs over them “to balance the situation.”

Joshua Ferry’s paintings first drew statewide attention in 2005 when two of his works were included in the Portland Museum of Art’s biennial exhibition. The following year, he received honorable mention for his submissions to the biennial show at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art in Rockport—a distinction he received again in 2008. Ferry’s talent has also drawn praise from established painters such as Sam Cady and Katherine Bradford, while art collector Sam Mitchell, another fan, already owns several major pieces. Clearly, Ferry is a younger-generation artist to watch.

Suzette McAvoy

June 2009