Making and Sharing Art
The Green Lion started in 2015 as part of artist/owner David Morgan’s studio in Bath, Maine. He began by inviting a few artists to share the space and show their work. That winter was very quiet. Eventually, though, word began to spread, and in the autumn of 2016 the gallery moved to Front Street in Bath, with many more artists and a wide variety of work. We showcase the art of Maine and New England, and we also offer a variety of high-quality, unique art from around the world including a small but growing collection of historic and consigned work from the 18th century onward.
In the spring of 2020, because of the spreading COVID-19 virus and the sale of our building, we regretfully had to close our location in downtown Bath, at least temporarily. The gallery now shares space with Matt Brown Fine Art in Lyme, New Hampshire (Matt was one of the first artists with work in the Green Lion). The gallery represents an evolving roster of artists, with a continuing (but not exclusive) focus on printmakers. We house hundreds of prints, as well as some one-of-a-kind works including paintings, drawings, sculpture, and assemblages.
Each fine art print in the gallery is individually created by the artist - they are not mechanical, digital, or mass-produced reproductions. Our print collection includes many wood and linoleum-cut prints, as well as etchings, drypoints, engravings, lithographs, collagraphs, monoprints, and individually-crafted photographs. We celebrate the creative alchemy of the printmaking process, and appreciate the affordability and accessibility of handmade prints as an art form.
The gallery is open year round, with frequent new shows, ongoing workshops, open studio days, and community events.
Check our Facebook page for current hours, news, and events, or give us a call at 603-795-4855.
Green Lion Staff
David Morgan founded the Green Lion in 2015, along with his print studio, the Merrymeeting Press.
My creative journey, like my approach to printmaking, has had some curious transmutations. It began with photography in the 1970s, when it was still done with silver and light (but in the dark). It’s gone on to include sifting through earth and time as an archaeologist; many years of working with wood in all its forms, from house framing to hand-carved furniture; and then working with living trees and ecosystems as a practitioner of ecological restoration. Now it’s circled back to visual art, still with a connection to wood - and trees - through woodcut printmaking. It’s also come to include making other artists’ work available to the community, in Bath, in Lyme, and wherever our visitors may come from.
Siri Beckman is a well-known Maine woodcut artist and wood engraver, and is here on Wednesdays.
I was born in the Chicago area, and we lived north of the city in what was still “country”. This was a formative time and place for me as I began my outdoor explorations of nature, often on horseback.
Though I worked as a graphic artist, it was not until 1975 when I moved to Maine that I began thinking of myself as an artist. My father, along with books and art galleries, were some of my earliest teachers, but the person who was the single biggest inspiration to me was a painter from Montreal named Bruce Le Dain. Coming from a similar tradition of graphic arts, he had made the leap to supporting himself and his family through painting.
Printmaking was largely unknown to me until I discovered wood engraving quite by accident in a private library. Thus began the many years of teaching myself the skills needed to cut hard wood with fine engravers. At age 49 I decided to pursue a MFA at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. I moved to Bath in the winter of 2017-18, after many years in Stonington on Deer Isle.
Austin Armstrong is a versatile emerging printmaker and now Gallery Director, beginning in October of 2019.
Austin is a lithographer and painter who hails from Loveland, Colorado, and has spent a majority of his artistic career working inside the studio. He has worked at various art centers and print shops, assisting workshops, lighting shows, photographing artwork, and collaborating with artists.
Now he is testing his abilities in the business side of the arts as our gallery director. With a passion for printmaking, theology, the outdoors, and social development, Austin will be happy to strike up a conversation with you.
As a lithographer he is always interested in collaborating and making new work. You can see some of his prints at AustinArmstrongInk.com