WEST PARIS — Bethel artist Ava Jackson recently completed a painting of a West Paris woodworker, Nicholas Kontos, outside of his home on Route 26, and she wants locals to enjoy it.
“I spent over 250 hours painting this piece over the past four months,” Jackson said. “You sit alone, late at night, working on this piece tirelessly, and you want to share it with people.”
“Nicholas,” a 6- by 4-foot acrylic on canvas painted by Ava Jackson, depicts woodworker Nicholas Kontos at his home on Route 26 in West Paris. “I always drove by this man’s house and always loved the chaos of it,” Jackson said. Submitted photo
Jackson noted that Kontos’ house is iconic in the West Paris area and she has been driving past it since she started attending Bowdoin College in 2018 and began commuting from her native northern New Hampshire to Brunswick for classes.
“I always drove by this man’s house and always loved the chaos of it,” Jackson said. “I was really curious about who he was and have been envisioning this painting for maybe five or six years.”
This summer, Jackson left a note at Kontos’ house and learned he was interested in being painted.
The 6- by 4-foot acrylic on canvas painting fits into a similar theme with others by Jackson, which focus on labor and rural life.
“I’m always working on a painting, usually of someone like a car mechanic, or a carpenter, or someone working in a kitchen,” Jackson said.
West Paris woodworker Nicholas Kontos stands recently at his property with the painting, “Nicholas,” by Bethel artist Ava Jackson. This summer, he allowed Jackson to create the piece she said she had been envisioning for five or six years while driving past his property on Route 26. Submitted photo
Jackson almost got into painting by accident, deciding to take some art classes for fun.
“I just happened to start taking some art classes because my friends were,” Jackson said.
Her style is called hard-edged representational work and it “came pretty natural to me,” she said.
“The people who I want to see this painting the most are people who know this guy,” Jackson said.
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