The Vero Beach Museum of Art will host a film screening and discussion for The Painted Life of Gregory Gillespie, an award-winning feature-length documentary about the late-20th-century painter and iconoclast, May 9. The screening will take place from 2 to 4 p.m. during the museum’s Second Saturday free-admission program.

Gillespie was known for meticulously painted figurative paintings, landscapes, and self-portraits. Many of his early works were made by painting over photographs cut from newspapers or magazines. Later on, Gillespie’s art transitioned to hyper-realistic imagery created in a looser, expressive style. His work is in the collections of the Whitney Museum, the Arkansas Arts Center, the Butler Institute of American Art, and the Hirshhorn Museum.

In The Painted Life of Gregory Gillespie, director Evan Goodchild draws on never-before-seen archival footage and interviews with artists, family, and art-world insiders to tell the full story of Gillespie’s escape from an insular New Jersey upbringing to study in New York and Italy in the 1960s and 1970s. Gillespie died by suicide in 2000. In the 90-minute feature, Goodchild learns that he once lived in the late artist’s Belchertown, Massachusetts studio.

Following the screening, attendees are invited to hear from Goodchild and Rick Segal, a friend of Gillespie’s, museum Board Chair, and a producer of the film.

Admission to the Museum is free on May 9. Space is limited for this program, and advanced registration is required. Register at vbmuseum.org.