Professor of Art and Design Jack Maxwell opens his show, “Summers Abroad,” this Saturday. The gallery will display works that he created while on sabbatical this past year.

A sabbatical, which comes from the same root as “Sabbath,” is a faculty renewal program that allows professors to take a year off every seven years to focus on his or her  concentration.

Maxwell graduated from ACU with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1978. After earning a masters degree from The University of Tennessee, he returned to ACU to teach. In over 25 years as a professor he has taught figure drawing, sculpture, printmaking and three-dimensional design. His wife, Jill, also teaches art at Abilene High School.

Maxwell took a half year sabbatical to plan Jacob’s Dream in 2006. Although he specializes in sculpture, this show displays only some of the 90 paintings he finished during the one year span.

“A year goes by quickly when you are doing something you enjoy,” Maxwell said.

Many of the said paintings in this show are based on pictures from his past years of travel which included Italy, Spain, Wales and other European countries.

“I think the pieces are very traditional and accessible,” Maxwell said. “They will appeal to people who have little art training or no art education, but people with an artistic eye will still see that they are well done.”

The gallery will display nearly 30 of Maxwell’s paintings which give a very classical view of some of Europe’s most beautiful locations.

The artist statement makes his intentions clear.

“My hope is that these simple marks, scribbles and dabs of pigment on paper might somehow allow you to catch a glimpse of the inexplicably sublime beauty of our Father’s world,” Maxwell wrote to welcome show attendees.

The opening ceremony for “Summers Abroad” will take place this Saturday in the Shore Art Gallery at 7 p.m. The show will run through October 14.