Doorway with French Flag

Joseph Keiffer

Courtesy of Courthouse Fine Art Gallery

I spent the year between high school and college in France and the landscape and the paintings there informed my idea of what a painting ought to look like. When I got to art school, in the 1970s, the teachers were promoting Modernism with religious fervor, but I was reluctant to let go of all the beautiful things that can only be done if an artist has control of technique, craft – line, and color! – the grammar and vocabulary of the art of Painting. I find that the French landscape, which has been sown, tilled, harvested, and cared for for hundreds of years is a place where visual ideas seem to spring from out of the ground and straight into my eyes. I am particularly familiar with Normandy, the “ile de France” (the countryside around Paris), and the Dordogne.

Joseph Keiffer’s work is currently on display in our Freeport, Maine Showroom. The show, Home and Away: Maine Artists Exploring the World, runs from June 2025 through January 2026.

A Glimpse of the Dordogne