John Schmidtberger

John Schmidtberger is a painter who works plein-air style in coastal Maine and the Delaware River Valley. His paintings have been described as modern and poetic, with a strong sense of light, deliberate brushwork, and a vivid palette.

Born in 1961, John grew up in Schooley’s Mountain, NJ and attended Phillips Exeter Academy on a scholarship.

At the University of Pennsylvania, he studied painting, drawing, sculpture and printmaking with Maine artist Neil Welliver and sculptor Robert Engman, earning his MFA in 1987. In recent years he has won several awards, including first place in The Art of the River Towns Juried Exhibition (2020) and The Patrons’ Award for Painting in the prestigious Phillips Mill Annual Juried Exhibition (2020 and 2021)

John has a special connection to Maine, having first learned about it from his mentor Neil Welliver. In the last 10 years he has completed most his paintings in Downeast Maine, from Mount Desert Island to Lubec. Prior to that, he worked in Midcoast Maine, from Port Clyde to Belfast, exhibiting in galleries in Rockland, Rockport, Camden and Belfast.

John’s work is represented in numerous private collections such as Mitchell Zuckerman (Sothebys); Richard Goode, classical pianist; Kate White, author and editor-in-chief (Cosmopolitan); Mark Rosenthal and William Tally, screenwriters; Daniel Tishman (AECOM, Tishman Construction); Stephen McDonnell (Applegate Farms), and Jill Kearney (ArtYard).