In honor of the annual FisherPoets Gathering, a handful of galleries in Astoria are hosting exhibitions by artists who harvest the ocean’s bounty.

At Imogen Gallery, George Wilson, a Scotland-born commercial fisherman and professional artist, is returning for his fifth solo exhibition.

His series of watercolors, “This Place That We Call Home,” offers a look at quiet moments of a life spent working on the water and living at its edge.

According to gallerist Teri Sund, Wilson is not a typical watercolorist. “He tends to be really gentle with his approach, letting the pigments pull up on the water and then letting it bide its own path,” she said. “He’s not forcing it in any way, just really letting it create these beautiful dreamlike compositions.”

At the same time, Sund added, Wilson’s dreamlike impressions have an “almost primitive look.”

Wilson has been showing work at Imogen biannually for the past eight years. This year, his body of work continues to focus on landscapes, adding pieces created in Alaska, where he used to fish before he retired. He jots down his observations in a pocket-sized sketchbook, sometimes on the boat in between setting nets, then renders the memory later in watercolor.

“His paintings are more about the land that holds the water,” Sund said. “He captures this area really beautifully. When you look at his work, you can feel the weather.”

Over the years, Wilson’s work has moved from narrative storytelling to ethereal realms, with atmospheric qualities of rain, mist, fog, storm and the like as the moving force.

“His work is like looking at an imprint of a memory of a place,” Sund said.

This year’s additions: cats and ginkgo trees. “Maybe a year ago, I decided to just paint things I know and have emotional ties to,” Wilson said. At the same time, his work also reflects the dislocation he has felt since moving from his ancestral home.

Wilson spent the first 49 years of his life in the Scottish village of Portknockie, where his family has lived for 300 years, and painted from an early age. He graduated from Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen, Scotland, before moving to Portland. His wife, Moe Bowstern, is a veteran fisherpoet.

“This Place That We Call Home” is at Imogen through March 3, and joins other art downtown during the FisherPoets Gathering.

At RiverSea Gallery, nine regional artists have come together for “Netted,” an invitational exhibit reflecting on connotations of the word: caught, entangled, trapped, landed. Meanwhile, Oregon Coast gyotaku artist Duncan Berry is showing “Icons of the Sea.”

“FisherPoet Portraits” by Pat Dixon and Veronica Kessler will be up at South Bay Wild, while Astoria Visual Arts shows “Beneath the Surface — A Fishing Community.”

“I’ve come to love Astoria as well, I’d love to call it home,” Wilson said. “My heart lifts when I come over the hill and then down into Astoria and see the river and the ships. It’s the possibility of home, is what that means.”

FisherPoets art in Astoria

FisherPoets art in Astoria

“The Place That We Call Home” by George Wilson, Imogen Gallery, 240 11th St.

“A FisherPoets Gathering Retrospective” by Veronica Kessler and Patrick Dixon at South Bay Wild, 262 Ninth St.

“Beneath the Surface — A Fishing Community,” a group exhibition at Astoria Visual Arts, 1000 Duane St.

“Icons of the Sea” by Duncan Berry and “Netted,” with Lindsey Aarts, Rose Covert, Jeremy Furnish, Gregory Gorham, Stirling Gorsuch, Marie Powell, Penny Treat and Judy Vogland, RiverSea Gallery, 1160 Commercial St.