Francis Hamabe


Francis Emritz Hamabe was a Maine artist of Japanese and Swedish descent.
Known best for his screen printing, oil painting and Sumi ink drawing, he also cartooned, including for The New Yorker and The Philadelphia Inquirer, and produced murals. He was the first art instructor for the Farnsworth Art Museum and the first art director of Down East, The Magazine of Maine. In 1952 he co-founded the Maine Coast Artists cooperative with Denny Winters, William and Stell Shevis, William Thon, Mildred Burrage and William Kienbusch.
Hamabe lived briefly in Rockport, Maine before settling for a time in Blue Hill, Maine. He taught at the Blue Hill Consolidated School, the University of Maine at Orono and the University of Maine at Machias.