Cynthia Orcutt
Hamilton Farm, Swan Valley, Idaho, Cynthia & John Orcutt
Cynthia. Orcutt is a fine art photographer, a landscape architect, an arts organizer and past gallery owner. With her husband, John, they own Orcutt Photography, a fine art photography business. From 2010 through 2018, John and Cynthia owned and operated The Schoolhouse Gallery in Kingfield, Maine, hosting numerous exhibitions, workshops and public art events. In 2017, John and Cynthia wrote and published a book of landscape photography titled, Enduring Heights – the High Peaks of Maine, which sold out the first printing of 1500 books within a year of publication.
Informed by years of work as a landscape architect, Cynthia’s goal in making photographic images is to find visual order in the complexity of the natural landscape. By creating images that isolate or simplify the main subject through careful composition and a variety of photographic controls, her work is a concise statement of the naturally occurring environment.
With other Kingfield gallery owners, Ms. Orcutt help launch Kingfield Artwalk, continuing to administrate and market Kingfield Artwalk from the beginning, in 2011, through 2018. In 2012, Cynthia was a founding member and is still part of the leadership group for the High Peaks Cultural Coalition (HPCC). The group received a Maine Arts Commission, Creative Community=Economic Development grant which enabled HPCC to develop a regional Arts and Culture map, sign the region and develop a website. Most recently the HPCC created a Quilt Trail in the High Peaks. Ms. Orcutt was appointed Commissioner to the Maine Arts Commission in 2014 and was appointed Vice Chair by Governor Mills in 2019.
Ms. Orcutt is a registered Landscape Architect, previously a Senior Associate at Sasaki Associates, and subsequently co-owned a multi-disciplinary design firm in the Portland area with her husband from 1992- 2001. She and continues to consult on master planning and site design projects throughout the East Coast.
Education
1982 - Master of Landscape Architecture, Harvard University, Graduate School of Design, Cambridge, MA
1978 - Bachelor of Landscape Architecture, State University of New York, Syracuse, NY
1977 - BS, State University of New York, Syracuse, NY
1973-74 - Ceramics major, Syracuse University, School of Fine Art, Syracuse, NY
Publications
2019 - Maine The Way, Issue 07 Oceans - Inland Acquaculture - Raising Seafood on the Land
2018 - Maine The Way, Issue 04 - Kingfield photo essay
2017 - Enduring Heights - The High Peaks of Maine, Carrabassett Publishing
2017 - Maine The Way, Issue 01 Winter - High Peaks photo essay
2017 -Bangor Daily News, “New book reveals the beauty of Maine’s High Peaks Region,” Aislinn Sarnacki
2017 - Down East Magazine, “Put Maine on Your Coffee Table,” Jesse Ellison
Selected Exhibitions
2019, 2017, 2015 - Fogg Lighting
2017 - Isolated Visitors, The Schoolhouse Gallery, Kingfield, ME
2015 - Take Wing, The Schoolhouse Gallery, Kingfield, ME
2014 - Frozen, The Schoolhouse Gallery, Kingfield, ME
2013 - High Peaks of Western Maine, The Schoolhouse Gallery, Kingfield, ME
Maine State House, Augusta, ME2012 - Deer Park Lodge, The Schoolhouse Gallery, Kingfield, ME
Trunks-Branches-Leaves - The Gift of Trees in Western Maine, The Schoolhouse Gallery, Kingfield, ME