Geoffrey Shovelton talks about his pen and ink and scratchboard artworks now on display at the New Portland Community Library. (Contributed photo) NEW PORTLAND — On Sunday afternoon, March 7, at the New Portland Community Library Geoffrey Shovelton talked about his pen and ink adventures and the intriguing medium called scratchboard. On the walls around him were almost a hundred examples of his work, including cartoons, greeting card designs, theatrical program covers and book illustrations.

Shovelton has been a New Portland resident for eight years and is enthusiastic about the town’s community library. “It has wonderful space,” he says, “comfortable and warmly welcoming.” When he was asked to display his artwork in the library he readily agreed.

His career began as head of the Geography Department in a London high school, but his voice and love of music pulled him in another direction. He joined Scottish Opera in 1971 and became a full-time opera singer. In 1975 he accepted a contract to be Principal Tenor for the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company, and was with the company when it closed in February 1982.

The singing life took Shovelton to Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the U.S.A., and various European countries. He remembers performing in cities from New York to San Francisco in over 40 States. To fill the many hours spent in airports, hotels and theatres he was helped by another lifelong passion —artwork.

Word —and the drawings— got around and soon Shovelton was being asked to design program covers and Christmas cards with operatic themes. In 1978 Harry Benford, a D’Oyly Carte fan from Ann Arbor, Mich., was ready to publish his Gilbert & Sullivan Lexicon and asked Shovelton to illustrate it. This led to other commissions, the latest of which was Enter the Fat Lady, a collection of poems by Jay Appleton, published in the fall of 2009.

The exhibition currently on show at the New Portland Community Library includes poems and relevant illustrations from Enter the Fat Lady. Copies of the book, and reproductions of its drawings, are available for purchase to benefit the Library.

Also represented are many D’Oyly Carte photographs, illustrations and cartoons chosen from 30 years of work. The exhibition may be viewed during the normal library hours: 4 to 6 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, and from 10 a.m. to noon Saturdays. The library’s telephone number is 628-6561.