From the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram, January 3, 2010
Daniel Kany, "Tradition Rules the Bayview Roost"
“…My favorite artist is a young Boothbay native named Robert Colburn.There are bigger names and bigger price tags by far in the gallery, but Colburn has an eye for composition, and he can handle a brush.His works are smart, thoughtful and very well painted. It’s unfortunately rare to see such maturity in a younger artist.Rarer still is seeing a strong Maine painter who is working in a traditional mode and whose pictures bristle with potential.
Colburn’s “Last Light” is a gorgeously painted composition of moored sailing vessels.His bold hand and the tenderness of the fading color of the sky reveal a fondness for Fairfield Porter.Colburn’s large canvas {Brackett’s Oar House} of dinghies piled in front of a porch is visually complex and alone worth the trip.
Colburn’s “White Sail” subtly reveals his process.A jib still unfurled on a boat at dock – a scene that couldn’t possibly be unattended.Sure enough, a closer look reveals the artist removed a pair of figures in service of the composition and solitude of the scene”.
