By Kristy Wagner

Staff Writer

Wine, finger food and art all came together on Sunday to celebrate Richard A. Dabrowski’s lifetime of artwork.

A large and diverse crowd gathered at the Kennebunkport Historical Society’s Pasco Center to view the life work of Dabrowski, a Kennebunkport artist who will turn 100 in March.

The exhibition is a retrospective that begins with Dabrowski’s father’s work as a master woodcarver and moves through the different stages of Dabrowski’s life and career as a sculptor and creator.

The exhibit was the brainchild of Susan Edwards, director of the historical society. She was thrilled at the crowd buzzing around the reception.

“We’re very proud to have (the exhibition) here at the historical society,” Edwards said.

Dabrowski’s son, Richard, and daughter, Gina Davis, were present at the opening reception of their father’s exhibition. Davis’s daughter, Eleanor, also came out on the frigid afternoon to celebrate the work of her grandfather.

Dabrowski’s son explained how the family came to have such an extensive collection of decades of their father and grandfather’s work.

“My grandfather has fantastic portfolios. He documented all of his work from the beginning and my dad sort of did the same,” Richard C. Dabrowski said.

He said his father passed his creative mind down to his children: his son makes furniture, one daughter paints and another daughter makes jewelry.

In the center of the one-room exhibit sat a large cross sectional. Each section housed a corner display of one of the artist’s actual workstations. Dabrowski’s children strategically placed paintbrushes, partially finished wood jigsaw puzzles, pottery pieces and plaster cast molds from their father’s basement studio. Since Dabrowski worked in several mediums, many items cluttered the displays, but the artist’s children placed each object exactly where Dabrowski himself would have.

Dabrowski’s daughter said she was pleased with the result of the family project.

“The most important thing for me is how my father receives it. It has sort of been a gift for him as well that we’ve been able to put this together for him in time for his 100th. You know, it’s been really exciting because I’ve found things I’ve never seen,” Davis said.

Davis said her sister, brother and other family members had photographs, sketches and paintings she did not know existed.

“I had never seen these images, so that was quite fun,” Davis said. “To see everything from the beginning to the end has been amazing and to have all the gaps filled in.”

Davis, who recently moved to Groton, Mass., from England, practices art therapy with people with mental and emotional disabilities and recently she has been painting with her 99-year-old father every week. She said she works primarily in watercolor and oil, while her father considers himself a sculptor and not an artist.

“Growing up I remember him saying that he never dreamed in color. It has to do with having a sculptural mind really. It’s a different part of (Dabrowski’s) brain,” Davis said.

Dabrowski’s exhibit highlights the diverse nature of his work. Among his sculpture pieces hang white line sketches and a few drawings. Dabrowski’s son pointed out a watercolor – the only one in the exhibit – that his father painted for an inn in Larchmont, N.Y., that commissioned him to produce a series of murals to decorate the inn walls.

Among other visitors to the reception were members of the Old Goats Club, a senior men’s social group Dabrowski formed in the 1980s after he relocated to Maine.

“You have to be retired at least 10 years and we meet every two weeks and we have to wear a jacket and tie,” said Bill Clark, a member of the Old Goats Club.

“We just sit around and shoot the breeze, it’s very casual,” Clark said.

Dabrowski limited club membership to 10 members to preserve the quality of conversation.

The Old Goats who came out in support of Dabrowski posed for a photo with their aged founder in front of the large molds he used to create terra cotta chimney panels. Dabrowski produced the panels for a large chimney atop a house in Portland. He was in his 70s at the time and the piece was one of the sculptor’s first commissions in Maine.

Dabrowski said he was delighted with the exhibition.

“I think it’s a whiz,” he said with a grin. “I never would have done it this way, but it’s beautiful. No one ever has a collection like this to see it. You may come to my house to see two pictures, but look at this stuff; it’s all over the place.”

The exhibition will remain at the Pasco Center in Kennebunkport from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday until March 9. Admission to the Pasco Center is donation based.

Staff writer Kristy Wagner can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 233.