“Why Paint Portraits In the 21st Century?” will be the first lecture in the 2026-27 lecture season of the Middle Peninsula Fine Arts Association of Gloucester. Steven Polson, an artist and teacher who has had a lifelong passion for drawing and painting portraits, will be the speaker. He will give his talk at 7:15 p.m. next Thursday, Oct. 15, at Flat Iron Crossroads, 7709 Flat Iron Road, Gloucester. Polson began his formal study at age 16 at the Art Students’ League in New York City, then went on to receive a Fine Arts degree in 1984 from the Cooper Union for the Advancement for Science and Art. He has won numerous awards for his painting, including an Elizabeth T. Greenshields Foundation Grant and The Allied Artists of America Gold Medal of Honor. Among Polson’s notable commissions are: General Colin Powell, Madeleine Albright and Condoleezza Rice for the U.S. Department of State; Stephen Schwarzman, founder of The Blackstone Group, for Schwarzman College at Tsinghua University, and ma...