When Robert Henri got to Monhegan in 1903, he decided that his friends and students should come there as well, and he dragged Rockwell Kent and Edward Hopper to the island. Kent really took to it, and built a place for himself. Pretty soon George Bellows and Randall Davey showed up, and then more and more arrived, as they still do. While never a real "colony," the artistic community has thrived for years, bringing such worthy artists as Abraham Bogdanove, Eric Hudson, Andrew Winter, James Fitzgerald, Reuben Tam, and many others.
This show is a fine backward look, and a chance to sample what some really interesting people were thinking about while they were enjoying what those of us who live here love about being here. Because of them, art runs deep here in Maine, and that has a lot to do with what makes it special.
Ken Greenleaf can be reached at ken.greenleaf@gmail.com.
THE CALL OF THE COAST: ART COLONIES OF NEW ENGLAND | through October 12 | at the Portland Museum of Art, 7 Congress Square, Portland | 207.775.6148 | portlandmuseum.org
Related:
Art in the air conditioning, Summer people, Homer's home, More 
- Art in the air conditioning
From Picasso to William "Shrek" Steig's cartoons, and surfer photos to a Twilight Zone toy store, New England offers art worth traveling to this summer. Here we round up the best in the region, no matter the weather or your artistic inclinations.
- Summer people
Ever wonder why there is so much professional-level art made and shown in Maine, a state with a total population less than that of many minor cities? One answer is that following the fame of people like Winslow Homer, creative types flocked to Maine, often to artists' colonies.
- Homer's home
A hundred years after his death, Winslow Homer is still making waves.
- Re-structuring
Three large oil paintings overwhelm the lobby at the Portland Museum of Art, introducing the show "Division and Discovery: Recent Works by Frederick Lynch," a beautiful and meditative collection found on the fourth floor of the museum.
- Arc printing
For more than 50 years David Driskell, in his art and his distinguished academic career, has been a creative force in the intersection of modernist art and the African diaspora.
- Looking DuBack
Looking backward, history seems a whole lot more orderly than it does while you're living it.
- Hope and energy
As we launch into the next decade with a collapsing economy and apocalyptic themes bleeding into every facet of culture, it's particularly hard to be optimistic about the arts, as yes, they are often the first to go.
- Cut it out
"Collage: Piecing it Together" at the Portland Museum of Art is a somewhat rambling look at a process that came into use in the beginning of the 20th century as a cubist process bringing images, colors, and shapes together that were previously used elsewhere.
- Growth + maturity
The Phoenix 's first 10 years in Portland roughly bracket the period during which I stopped writing about art.
- Idealist views
The path through my various responsibilities has led me to the Portland Museum several times in recent weeks, and along most of the floors. While passing through the Julia Margaret Cameron exhibit of photography I was struck by thoughts about templates created by dominant illusions, and how a consistent sense of an ideal world flowed through Cameron's work.
- Rain check
We have just the thing to cure your summer-vacation blues: Maine, from the inside.
- Less
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Museum And Gallery
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