“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.” — Pablo Picasso Picasso said it, but American Master Gertrude Fiske lived it. She certainly paid her dues. She learned “the rules,” or perhaps more accurately, she absorbed the societal expectations of New England at the time, and then she allowed herself — encouraged by such mentor greats as Edmund C. Tarbell, Frank Benson, Philip Hale and Charles Woodbury — to carve her own path. Fiske (1879-1961) was born into a prominent Massachusetts family and spent much of her time farther north in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and Downeast Maine. Her work was lauded for her ability to “see” a scene or a subject. That ability, that gift, set her apart. A founding member of the Guild of Boston Artists and later the Ogunquit (Maine) Art Association, Fiske was the first woman ever appointed to the Massachusetts State Art … [Read more...] about INDEPENDENT SPIRIT: FISKE OWNS IT IN PORTSMOUTH