An exhibit of drawings, paintings and sketches by renowned courtroom artist Andy Austin opens October 8 at the Pascal Gallery in Rockport. Titled “Instead of Cameras,” the show documents the way Austin’s work brought the faces of famous criminal trials to television viewers nationwide when cameras were not allowed in courtrooms.

This first major compilation of Austin’s art captures her keen observations of tumultuous legal action over four decades of Chicago’s high-profile trials, from the 1969 Chicago Seven conspiracy trial of anti-Vietnam activists like Abbie Hoffman and Bobby Seale to the city’s gang warfare murder trials of 2011. In between are the faces of four corrupt governors, serial killer John Wayne Gacy Jr., political spies, financial fraudsters and assorted terrorists and mobsters.

Andy Austin brought them all to life for the city and the nation when her shrewdly accurate sketches and watercolors ran on ABC News. The 105 works on display include scowling judges, gesticulating lawyers, tearful witnesses and celebrities like Norman Mailer, Michael Jackson and Michael Jordan.

Austin, a longtime resident of Rockport who died in April 2025 at age 89, scribbled notes about the trials on the margins of some of her works. She put the best stories into her 2008 book, Rule 53: Capturing Hippies, Spies, Politicians and Murderers in an American Courtroom. Named for the rule that bans courtroom cameras, the book includes moving personal stories of her life and her beloved coastal Maine.

Copies will be on sale at the show.

The exhibit opens October 8 and runs at Pascal Hall (86 Pascal Ave., Rockport) from noon to 5 p.m., Wednesdays through Sundays, until October 31.