Twenty-three of Washington County resident Jacob Houston’s paintings will be exhibited in the Hyde Collection’s Hoopes Gallery as A Magical World: The Art of Jacob Houston. When he was 12 years old, Houston entered one of his paintings into the Washington County Fair Farm exhibition and won first prize — an honor he took home every year until he aged out of the competition.

In the years since, he has exhibited his art at more than a dozen venues. Houston won first prize at Lapham Gallery’s first LARAC 120 degrees Intercollegiate Art Competition, competing with artists from colleges throughout the region. His art has also been exhibited in a three-person show at LARAC and in a solo exhibition at Southern Vermont Arts Center. He was featured artist in the Malta League of Arts’ Arts Attitude exhibition. He has also twice been selected to be part of the National Society of Casein & Acrylic Painters’ exhibit at the Salmagundi Club in Manhattan.

Houston is mostly self-taught and paints what he finds in the world around him, what he encounters in his travels, and places he can only dream about.

The exhibition runs through June 23.  The Hyde Collection is located at 161 Warren Street, Glens Falls.

Painting: Balloons Over Cambridge by Jacob Houston.