Janet Knott

The Langlais Art Preserve in Cushing

by Janet Knott

Driving through Cushing, Maine, I stumbled upon the Langlais Art Preserve, protected by the Georges River Land Trust. Bernard Langlais (1921-1977) had a deep appreciation for the New England seasons, Cushing, the climate, and his art. Here you will find his incredible work, carved out of wood and painted in rich detail. Meander along the paths, and be transported to an otherworldly place.

A group of large carved wood animals standing on a concrete pad at the Langlais Art Preserve, a black bear with its arms spread wide, a rust red horse beside it, and a tall pale animal with bared teeth rising behind them.
A long white barn wall covered end to end with carved wood relief animals in weathered gray, among them an elephant, a lion, giraffes, a rhinoceros, and a monkey, set above a mowed field.
A large carved wood figure of a seated woman painted pink, with black hair and a staff across her lap, resting on a gravel mound in front of the shingled studio barn.
A carved wood figure in a dark suit sleeve raising a hand in a peace sign above a stand of cattails, its painted face half hidden in the reeds.
Five weathered gray wood planks set upright on a concrete plinth, each carved with simple eye shapes, standing against a background of trees and wildflowers.
Carved wood swans and shorebirds mounted on a weathered post, seen through the timber frame of a viewing shelter with dense green woods behind.
Weathered wooden steps and a railing climbing between goldenrod and milkweed on a trail through the preserve.
Cattails and goldenrod growing thick along the edge of a wet meadow, with evergreens and a glimpse of a rooftop beyond.
A single arching spray of goldenrod leaning across a gravel path at the Langlais Art Preserve.
The interior of Bernard Langlais’s studio, hand saws and chainsaws racked on white shelves, a carved wood cat cutout above them, and roughed out wood forms and beach stones covering the workbench.
A wooden tray of crushed and dried oil paint tubes beside a spattered palette and two brushes on the worn workbench in Bernard Langlais’s studio.
Small visitor made collages of wood scraps and paint, pinned with clothespins to lines strung across a white board wall at the Langlais Art Preserve.