An exhibition curatedby Kristina Durocher at The York Public Library, York Village, Maine
May 13 - August 27, 2025
Beverly Hallam (1923–2013) was a vital member of Ogunquit’s art community with a national reputation as an innovative contemporary realist painter. Chasing Light highlights photography as a defining force in her career. From her polyvinyl acetate paintings in the 1950s to her larger-than-life floral still lifes in the 1980s, Hallam’s acute sensitivity to reflective surfaces and luminous color was shaped by her practice of working from photographic slides and prints. Her photographic vision, developed in her youth, defined her as an artist and informed her fascination with realism and optical phenomena.
Photography was also central to her printmaking, particularly in her monotypes, where photographic images structured her compositions while her innovative roller technique introduced elements of spontaneity.
Beyond its supporting role, photography was essential to her airbrushed floral paintings, where she controlled every detail of the still life composition while reflective glass and mirrors allowed her to manipulate the elusive nature of light. In both painting and printmaking, photography enabled her to transform everyday scenes into meditations on light and color.
When the physical demands of painting grew too great, Hallam turned to digital art, creating layered abstract compositions infused with luminous chromatic energy. Whether through painting, printmaking, or digital media, she remained devoted to chasing light.
Triple Self Portrait
Cibachrome
20.75 x 32 x 1.25 in
A LIFE-CHANGING AWARD
In 1960, Hallam received the Blanche E. Colman Award, a $5,000 grant that enabled her to travel extensively abroad. This opportunity proved life changing. Already an accomplished artist, she gained the confidence to leave teaching behind and fully dedicate herself to her art.
Her travels took her through Italy and Spain before she settled for four months in Mougins, France. There, alongside her traveling companion, Mary-Leigh Smart, she rented a small house and became captivated by the region’s scenery—its lush landscapes, vivid colors, and abundant flowers.
Hallam never worked in complete abstraction; her compositions always referenced something tangible. During her time in Europe, she documented her travels using slide film, later working from her own images with a handheld slide viewer. In Mougins, France, she drew inspiration from her photographs, and her paintings from this period reflect a distinctly photographic sensibility, characterized by a flat, horizontal format, compressed compositions, cropped perspectives, and extreme close-ups.
RECURRING MOTIFS
As Hallam embraced monoprinting, light—central to her photographic work—became a defining element of her practice. Several recurring motifs highlight this evolving focus.
In Night Vision Pattern (1964) and Nosegay in Bud Vase (1966), Hallam places her subjects within aperture-like environments, echoing the mechanics of a camera. In Night Vision Pattern, a dark, organic geometric form—perhaps a rock—floats within a luminous, undulating white field, framed on three sides by a charcoal haze. Devoid of a horizon line, the form is suspended in an indeterminate space, as if caught in a photographic flash. Likewise, in Nosegay in Bud Vase, the bouquet emerges from deep shadows, bathed in a central glow. Here, the effect is more diffuse—the flowers dissolve into smudges, daubs, and quick strokes of color, like a soft-focus photograph.
Another key motif in Hallam’s work is a literal framing device—windows, arches, or architectural elements—such as the arch in Pewter Sky (1967) that creates the illusion of a domed night sky. Over time, light not only shapes Hallam’s compositions but comes to dominate her artistic vision, guiding her work hand-in-hand with her photography.
PHOTOGRAPHING THE GOLDEN HOUR
But no artificial light please!...Just give them old-fashioned saturated late afternoon sun and wonderful moving shadows with patterns that connect and disconnect.
After nearly two decades of pushing the boundaries of monoprinting to spectacular results, Hallam set her sights on a new media to invigorate her artistic practice—airbrushing. Drawn to the dramatic effects of late afternoon light illuminating her floral compositions, where colors burst, and shadows stretch across surfaces, she relied on photography to capture the radiant glow of the “golden hour.” Working from her photographs to translate these ephemeral scenes into paintings, Hallam found her trusted gelatin roller printing methods failed to capture the ambient light and shifting shadows that played across her dining room. She turned to airbrushing with oil paint (she later switched to acrylics) to depict, not only the lighting, but the velvety stillness of the luxurious afternoon sun.
Hallam developed a practice where photography and airbrush painting merged seamlessly in 1981. She set up tableaus of flowers, photographing them, taking up to two dozen shots, and putting the developed C-prints aside to be considered later. Through this process, photography became not just a tool for reference, but the very foundation of her exploration of luminosity and form.
Notes: Payson, J. W. (1988). Beverly Hallam: The floral image, journal notes. Midtown Galleries.
PHOTOGRAPHY AS STUDY
“I have worked from photographs–but not copying them. I’ve referred to them, and very often I’ll use a combination of three or four photographs, quick sketch of what I want to abstract. But working from photographs can be deadly. A person will never know who he is if all he does is copy.”
This grouping of photographs, alongside a painting of Queen Anne’s lace, illustrates the integration of Hallam’s photographic and painting processes.
Once Hallam selected a photograph, she projected it onto either gessoed rag paper or linen covered with tracing paper. She then traced the composition to create a stencil, deliberately modifying elements to enhance patterns and establish dynamic rhythms. In this way, she moved beyond pictorial accuracy, reinventing and refining her source material. Working from the lightest areas first, she meticulously traced, cut, and sprayed, using the airbrush in smooth, controlled motions to ensure consistency.
Throughout the process, she recorded precise notes on color, analyzing chroma and value with commercial color-matching systems to accurately depict the translucent blooms. As her painting practice evolved, she incorporated the used stencils into her work, creating new subjects and photographing her own paintings as creative works that stand on their own.
Notes: Franklin, L. (1977, February 27). Beverly finds a roller coaster. Maine Sunday Telegram, 7D.
DIGITAL ART
“An artist should push, change,...not be afraid to get out of his rut–off his track–and make a mistake or two.”
Health concerns and the physical demands of airbrushing–a single painting could take more than two hundred hours– prompted Hallam to abandon painting, challenging her to explore and experiment in an entirely new field–digital art.
In the early 2000s, Hallam put down the airbrush and began a series of photo collages, cutting and reassembling photographic prints of her own paintings or images of works of art in her home, such as Woven Photograph from Cottingham Lithograph. In works such as these, Hallam manipulated the images manually, weaving intricate abstract patterns. Excited by the possibilities, she soon adopted digital tools, creatively using Microsoft Word to experiment with digitally cutting and pasting images, processes Hallam had refined using stencils in her monoprinting and painting practices.
Digital art freed Hallam to experiment; for nearly a decade she reimagined familiar subjects such as swirling color abstractions and complex floral bouquets and composed layered geometric collages that recall her early experiments with polyvinyl acetate. Throughout her career, Hallam continually embraced new techniques, yet photography remained at the heart of her practice—serving as both a foundation and a catalyst for her evolving artistic explorations.
Notes: Little, C. (2005, p. 119). Beverly Hallam: An odyssey in art. Pucker Art Publications.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Chasing Light: List of Works
Seacoast Online Article
Beverly Hallam CV
Weekly Sentinel Article
Beverly Hallam Chronology
Beverly Hallam Essay
Press Release
For more of Beverly Hallam’s work, please visit the Surf Point Beverly Hallam Catalogue
ABOUT THE CURATOR
Kristina L. Durocher is a champion and advocate for contemporary art and has more than twenty years experience working in the museum field at both independent and academic art museums. She returned to her alma mater when she was appointed to serve as the inaugural director of visual arts at the Fine Arts Center at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in June 2024. Previously she served as the director and curator of the Museum of Art of the University of New Hampshire from 2011-2024.
At the University Massachusetts Amherst, Kristina is responsible for the administration and curatorial vision of three distinct visual arts presenting venues: the University Museum of Contemporary Art, the Augusta Savage Gallery and the Hampden Gallery. During her tenure at the University of New Hampshire, Ms. Durocher was responsible for administration of the Museum of Art, curating six to eight exhibitions annually including diverse, regionally and nationally recognized artists, developing curricular connections with faculty across the University and community outreach. The Museum of Art was recognized for its contributions to the NH Seacoast region and was awarded a Public Value Partnership grant from the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts and was the recipient of grants from the Foundation for Advancement in Conservation, the Alliance of American Museums, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Kristina advocates for institutional and field-wide excellence, reinvention, and individual professional growth in her role as president of the Association of Academic Museum and Galleries, a position she has held since 2020. She writes and presents on field-wide issues, most recently she co-authored, “Bringing Our Resources to Bear,” which appeared in the July/August 2022 issue of Museum. In 2019, she co-edited, For Love or Money: Confronting the State of Museum Salaries, contributing an essay on legislation to end salary inequity. Recognized as a leader in the museum field, she was named a fellow of the Getty Leadership Institute in 2017. Kristina holds a M.A. in Art History from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst with a concentration in contemporary art.
Kristina resides in Hampstead, New Hampshire with her husband and two children. Outside of the museum, she is an active member of the Greater Derry Track Club; she enjoys trail running and kayaking.