Neal’s work can be seen at Parent Fine Art in Belfast, Maine.
WORKSHOPS
Neal has been sharing his gifts of photography and laughter with others by conducting workshops throughout Maine for many years. He has taught courses at Maine Media Workshops, Wooden Boat School in Brooklin, Maine, on the ketch Angelique out of Camden, Maine, as well as at his gallery in Belfast, Maine.
Workshops include beginner’s digital photography, offering instructions in how to use your digital camera’s many settings. Neal encourages students to shoot in manual mode, and how to get the most out of the image. Each student also will benefit from the daily critiques that Neal feels is so important in learning to use their cameras. Those who have their basic skills in digital photography will have the opportunity to focus on their visual and composition skills, learning how to make the most out of a subject. Shooting is followed by discussion of what worked, and what could be improved.
As a Maine resident he has many connections with local people who are willing to share their way of life with students. During his workshops, students are able to not only capture the coast of Maine, but a variety of other locations as well. Students meet and photograph boat builders, farmers hauling logs by horseback out of the woods, musical instrument makers, fisherman, and even an early morning shoot at the local bakery. Capturing the coastline is one thing; capturing a way of life is another.
PARENT FINE ART GALLERY
Neal’s images are available as limited edition fine art prints directly from him at Parent Fine Art gallery in Belfast Maine, which opened in 2001. Formerly known as Parent Gallery, the gallery has, over the years, expanded to include a variety other local artists, including his daughter Joanne Parent.
A selection of his work, both color and black-and-white, is represented here on NealParent.com. Be sure to check out his Facebook page, where Neal posts many of his fine images.
PUBLICATIONS
Five books have been published with collections of his work: “My Corner of Maine“, “Neal Parent’s Maine“, published by Downeast Books, “Focused on the Coast“, published by Wooden Boat Books, as well as “Neal Parent Photography Workshops” and “Sailing the Coast”, both self-published by Neal. His photos have appeared in several magazines, including National Fisherman, Pacific Fisherman, and Downeast. In addition, his images were selected to appear in Nathalie Ward’s “Stellwagen Bank“, “Adventure” by Joseph E. Garland with Captain Jim Sharp, and “From Cape Cod to the Bay of Fundy“, edited by Philip W. Conkling.
EXHIBITIONS
Neal has exhibited his work in several galleries and at juried fine art shows from Maine to Florida and has won countless awards and ribbons from some of the most prestigious art shows on the East Coast. His images hang in private and corporate collections, and were exhibited at a one-man show on Madison Avenue in New York at a major public relations firm. Currently his work is exhibited at Parent Fine Art in Belfast Maine. Ansel Adams once wrote Neal and said that “Maine was a hard place to capture”, and that “Neal had done a fine interpretation of the Maine scene.”