Walk into the warm embrace of the area’s art museums this autumn and feel the love for art, from epic classical pieces to hip contemporary collections.

Portland Museum of Art
The Portland Museum of Art opens its newly restored Winslow Homer Studio on Sept. 25, and the museum will host a number of related art exhibits centered on this great American artist this fall.
One of the most significant historical sites of American art, the studio at Prouts Neck, Maine, is where Homer lived and painted many of his masterpieces from 1883 until his death in 1910, and it will soon open to the public.

“Weatherbeaten: Winslow Homer and Maine” opens at the museum in Portland on Sept. 22. Comprised of more than 35 major oils and watercolors painted during Homer’s time in the studio, the exhibition will introduce new perspectives on his life and work. Many of these works have not been on exhibition in Maine for more than a generation and, due to their rarity and history, will not be seen together again for decades to come. Among them is a quintessential image of the stormy, rocky coast, “Weatherbeaten,” painted in 1894.

A related exhibition, “The Portland Society of Art and Winslow Homer’s Legacy in Maine,” is up through Feb. 3. It examines, for the first time, the artistic relationship between the painter and his close friend and architect John Calvin Stevens, and the early years of the Portland Society of Art. With architectural drawings and a variety of paintings and watercolors by Homer and his Maine contemporaries, the 50 works provide a deeper understanding of Portland’s art world at the turn of the 20th century.

Elsewhere in the gallery, “Art in Process” recently opened to present the work of high school students from across the state. Inspired by Homer’s paintings of Maine, this show represents student responses to the idea of a sense of place in art. They studied Homer’s career, worked with a local visiting artist, and created their own works of art. 

Finally, opening Oct. 6 is “Between Past and Present: The Homer Studio Photographic Project,” a show of contemporary photography made with a variety of historic processes available during Homer’s lifetime.

The photographers include Abelardo Morell, Keliy Anderson-Staley, Brenton Hamilton, Tillman Crane, and Alan Vlach. Images of the Homer Studio include architectural studies, views of the landscape, interior scenes, and still-life subjects of the few objects that survive from Homer’s day.

Currier Museum of Art
This fall, the Currier continues to show “New Hampshire and the American Studio Craft Movement,” commemorating the state’s pivotal role in the development of craft. Featuring ceramics, quilts, glassware, furniture and more from as early as the 1800s, the exhibition showcases the local history of craft traditions. Modern-day studio crafts are also on display by artists from the state, as well as by other artists whose work was deeply influenced by its traditions.

Also on display now is “Dutch and Flemish Masterworks from the Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Collection,” featuring five loaned paintings that mark defining moments in each artist’s career.

A selection of Van Otterloo loans will also be featured in the Currier’s fall exhibition, “Printmaking in the Age of Rembrandt,” opening Sept. 29. This one will feature prints and etchings by more than a dozen artists including Rembrandt van Rijn and his contemporaries  Hendrick Goltzius and Jan Dirkszoon Both.

Rembrandt was a master of light and shadow whose 17th-century Dutch paintings, drawings and prints placed him among the greatest creative talents. Historically, prints are important because of their relative affordability, while also providing artists with steady income.

Other temporary loans to the museum available for viewing this fall include Edgar Degas’ 1882 painting “Repetition au Foyer de la Danse (Dance Rehearsal).” It is complemented by the Currier’s own Degas pastel drawing, “Dancers,” from about 1890, which has not been on view for a decade because it’s so fragile. 

Three other masterpieces on loan are the 1880 landscape, “Un Noyer dans La Prairie Thomery (Landscape with Walnut Tree at Thomery),” by the impressionist Alfred Sisley, an early Cubist composition “The Lute Player” (1917–18) by the Spanish painter Maria Gutierrez Blanchard, and a classical bronze nude of “Diana” (1943) by French sculptor Aristide Maillol.

Also this fall, see the latest collaboration between New Hampshire painter James Aponovich and state artist laureate, furniture master David Lamb. “White Mountain Breakfront,” also known as “Lambovich IV,” will be unveiled on Nov. 1.

UNH Museum of Art
The University of New Hampshire’s Museum of Art marks back-to-school season with three new exhibitions, running through Oct. 14.

“Multiple Perspectives” highlights new work by two New Hampshire artists, Francestown printmaker Peter Milton and Portsmouth photographer Douglas Prince. Each creates digital collages based upon historical, often autobiographical, events and people. Their layered work offers different perspectives of imagined worlds.

On Saturday, Sept. 22 at 2 p.m., Milton speaks with Mary McGowan, founder of McGowan Fine Arts, and on Wednesday, Sept. 26 at 12 p.m., Prince will give an ArtBreak talk about the creative development of his work entitled “Evolving Visions III.”

Another featured artist is UNH alumnus Gary Haven Smith, of Northwood, whose three granite sculptures will be on view in the Mills Courtyard adjacent to the Museum of Art throughout the year in “Freshly Cut Stone.” He carves contemporary sculptures that seem to defy gravity in textures, patterns, and designs inspired by ancient civilizations, symbols, and the geological past.

This season’s “Art Faculty Review” shows off work by Benjamin S. Cariens, Craig Hood, Michael McConnell, and Jennifer Moses, studio art faculty members in the Department of Art and Art History, who are returning from sabbatical or leave.

Ogunquit Museum of American Art
Wrapping up another season at the Ogunquit Museum of American Art are several shows running through Oct. 31.

One is “Contemporary Works from the Permanent Collection,” which features lesser known and seldom seen works of American modernism by masters such as Wolf Kahn, Eric Aho, Gene Davis and Steven Hawley.

Many of the pieces in “Portrait of an Art Colony” have never been seen on exhibit. Examples on display include Hal Carney’s enigmatic Portrait of Robert Laurent, Isabella Howland’s caricatures of Henry Strater, and “John Laurent’s Pony Cart” by Bernard Karfiol, along with portraits by many art colony artists.

On the other hand, as a pioneer in the “Mail Art Movement” of the 1970s, Carlo Pittore contributed to more than 1,000 exhibitions. A unique collection of this art from the past three decades is compiled in “Carlo Pittore and the Mail Art Movement.” Pittore was active in New York in the 1970s and ’80s, but eventually moved to Maine where he started the Union of Maine Visual Artists.

Portsmouth and Rochester
The Portsmouth Museum of Art is still in the process of relocating to 909 Islington St. in the West End, where the permanent venue will allow for greater diversity of artwork. The Seacoast’s newest museum, the Rochester Museum of Fine Art, is showcasing work by painter, illustrator, sculptor and educator Joshua Baptista at its downtown location, 1 North Main St., in October and November.