Fiske spent summers as part of a flourishing artist’s colony in Ogunquit, Maine, near Wells Beach, depicted here. Her composition—with utility poles set against the background of a seascape—demonstrates the artist’s interest in juxtaposing signs of modernity with scenes more traditionally considered beautiful. Trained at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Fiske studied with well-known artists including Edmund Tarbell and Philip Leslie Hale. However, her cropped compositions and acidic colors convey a willingness to venture beyond the genteel aesthetic in which her mentors typically painted.

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