All Mitch Billis really wants to do is paint. The Internet and the world of cyberspace wasn't for him; he didn't know much about it and he was all right with that. He knew plenty of artists that had websites, many of whom encouraged him to have one of his own. But early this summer he changed his mind and the plein (outdoor) art painter worked with Dawn Guzzo of Atomic Studios for a couple of months on www.mitchbillispaintings.com. It went live last week.

Billis has been in Boothbay Harbor since 1978 and been a painter for 40 years. Why did he decide to go the website route now?

“I figured it was about time,” Billis said. “I decided to do a website not only to validate who I am as a painter, but to let people know about my family members who are also artists.”

Links are provided to the websites of his kids, Chris, Mitch S., Scott; and grandson Tanner. 

Kathleen Billis, his wife and a fellow artist, is still holding out on a website. Billis advises visitors to the site to Google her name and galleries where her works are displayed will be called up.

Billis did all of the writing on the website and Atomic Studios designed and built the site.

“Dawn was great to work with and a very talented designer,” Billis said.

Features on the site include rolling your cursor over a photograph to reveal Billis' painting of that place. Paintings in his landscape, still life, and plein air art galleries are set up as slide shows, but paintings may be selected individually. The name and size of each painting appears at the bottom of the work.

On the site, Billis shares a bit of personal history and family photos; recounts what led him to leave a tenured position as a math professor at Montana State University to become a painter; describes the dynamics and spirituality of the plein air art experience, and his studio painting process. He also includes links to the other Billis family artists.

Billis is planning a cross-country road trip in September, traveling the back highways. Sounds like a new spring collection!

Among the quotes on the site is this one from Robert Henri's book, “The Art Spirit” that speaks to Billis' passion for plein air art painting.

“The object which is in back of any true work of art is the attainment of a state of being, a state of high functioning, a more than ordinary moment of existence.” 

No wonder all Mitch Billis wants to do is paint.