By JUDY GRIES
Showcase Correspondent

Panorama.

“TURTLE PARK, BARRINGTON, NH” is among the works by Seth Wieder on view at the Franklin Gallery in Somersworth this month. (Courtesy art)

It is the proper descriptive for the Franklin Gallery exhibit by South Berwick, Maine, artist Seth Wieder, though it is titled more simply, "Recent Works by Seth Wieder."

Panorama is the technique for his "College Hill, Providence RI," a spectacular mixed-media work. And panoramic is what the exhibit represents of the many media in which Wieder works.

Wieder, a graduate of Rhode Island School of Design, has a special love of black-and-white photography and watercolor, but the exhibit also displays his digital photography, mixed media, oils and even some experimental gel pen work.

Wieder’s "College Hill, Providence, RI" uses photographs in combination with painting. Wieder got up on the roof of his apartment building to capture some of the photographs he used in this piece. He says he was influenced to some degree in this piece by David Hockney’s work in mixed media.

"Even though I was working in mixed media before I saw Hockney’s work, he inspired me to move in a better direction," Wieder said in a recent phone interview.

He also found the subject for the oil painting, titled simply "Water Heater" in his old apartment building. The heater struck him as "scary-looking" and indeed, the dark mustard-y colors suggest a Stephen King-like threat. His Providence, R.I., neighborhood prompted other oils. "Everything there was decrepit but beautiful," he said.

Now he’s in South Berwick and his subjects come from Prescott Park in Portsmouth, Turtle Pond in Barrington and other natural scenes. He says he like to get high up as he did for the Providence mixed media. But now he’s "discovered" Garrison Hill Park in Dover, and is taking lots of photos and spending lots of time there.

"I grew up in Dover and I never knew about the park. It’s really fascinating."

For his photos, Wieder uses a 35 mm camera, both a Nikon FG and a Nikon F4. He says he loves to use the manual because it gives him so much more control. With his black-and-white photography, he does his own developing. For his digital photography, some of which is in this exhibit, he uses a lab. Digital photography is a lot more archival, he says, it will last longer.

Wieder has exhibited at the Haystack School in Deer Isle, Maine, at the Art Guild of the Kennebunks and the AS220 Gallery in Providence.

A series of three photographs, "Face," "Foot" and "Hand" is a challenge thrown to the viewer — "not so much camouflage art, but I’m trying to make someone think on layers and levels," Wieder said.

In addition to visits to Garrison Hill Park with his cameras, Wieder hikes the White Mountains. Those trips hold promise for new panoramas for the next exhibit.