FREEPORT, Maine - One of Maine's most popular contemporary artists and art promoters died over the weekend.
Tom Crotty, who was 80, was diagnosed with cancer nine months ago, according to the Portland Press Herald, and had undergone a couple of surgeries.
As well as being a respected painter, Crotty operated the Frost Gully Gallery in Freeport, where he showed the work of established artists, such as Dahlov Ipcar, who was also a close friend of Crotty's.
"Tom Crotty was a marvelous painter," Ipcar says, "and I have been associated with him and his gallery for over 50 years, and I will miss him excessively."
Ipcar says Crotty did a lot to promote Maine artists when they were out of favor with many gallery owners in the state, who preferred to show exhibits of artists from out of state.