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A year into this pandemic, and many small businesses are struggling with how to safely stay in business. Our area artists and galleries are no exception. Fortunately, we have the largest “canvas” in the world available to us – the internet!
Several of our galleries have opted to hold virtual exhibits in addition to in-gallery shows. NorthWind Fine Arts Gallery (https://northwindfineartsgallery.com) is now sharing a space in the back of the former Sears Store (62 Main St., Saranac Lake) with ADK ArtRise (https://www.adkartrise.com) – a school offering art classes.
The Adirondack Artists Guild, in partnership with the Adirondack Center for Writing, presents Responding II – 2020 as its featured exhibit in September, running from Sept. 4-29.
This is the tale of a good Adirondack story, which is all true, but I had to make up a picture to illustrate it! I am an artist who loves to paint wild Adirondack landscapes, and sometimes a few of the Rocky Mountains too. A man was referred to me, who wanted someone to do a painting of a special Adirondack location for him.
Saranac Lake ArtWorks has announced their 4th Annual “Paint-Out” at the Paul Smith’s VIC has been set to run from September 1st to 8th, 2018. Like the Adirondack Plein Air Festival, which just concluded, the “Paint-Out” focuses on painting the Adirondack environment, which includes people and buildings and activities and wildlife as well as the landscape itself.
Who organizes a major event, without ever having taken part in a similar one? An artist would…. we create new things on a blank canvas all the time! I heard about something called Plein Air Festivals over 10 years ago and one day had a brainstorm. It seemed that if you had a scenic location, you could set the dates, invite a bunch of artists, give them a couple days to paint and then hold an exhibit. So without ever having participated in one, I organized the first Adirondack Plein Air Fesitval in Saranac Lake in August 2009.
The first time I went up Azure Mountain, it was because I’d read about it in a trail guide – it was only a mile hike so I thought it would be pretty easy. The trail started out very gradually, passing a small clearing with an old stone fire place and a picnic table. (I would later learn that’s where the fire observer’s cabin was located.) But after that, the trail became steep. Only a few switchbacks, then practically straight up the mountain – a 900+ foot elevation gain in a pretty short distance. On one stretch there were even a couple of bare poles, leaning at rakish angles, with insulators on the top. (They once held the telephone wire that went up to the fire tower). 
I painted the eclipse of August 21, 2017. No, not a solid black background with an orange disk with a bite taken out of it. I went out to a favorite painting location and I painted the effects of the eclipse on the Adirondack landscape!
You’ve probably been to fund-raising events where artwork has been donated. This is a tradition that many artists feel is an important way to show their support for an organization or cause. Sometimes art is also used as a publicity tool, with pieces created specifically for a purpose or cause. Many historians have credited Frederick Church, and other 19th century artists, with helping promote the creation of the National Park system, through their paintings of places like Yellowstone and Yosemite. Hudson River School painters shared with the world the beauty of the Adirondack and Catskill regions.
Remember playing with chalk on the sidewalk? Well, if you want to see the very opposite of that, head over to the 
The 8th annual Adirondack Plein Air Festival begins on Aug 15 and not only is it a bunch of artists painting outdoors, but it has “nocturnes” and “quick draws” too! Almost 70 artists from all over the US, Quebec and Ontario, will converge on the village of Saranac Lake in order to paint the beauty of the Adirondack region, much like the Hudson River School painters of the mid 1800’s.
I’ve often thought about writing down the story of how a painting develops and I just had the perfect opportunity to do that last weekend. Three solid days of clear blue skies, sunshine, rising temperatures and no bugs! A plein air “paint-out” had been organized at the Paul Smith’s College VIC and I was one of seven artists who participated. 
I sometimes wonder if there is a little natural fear of going into an art gallery. People sometimes live in a community all their lives and never go look at the art that may be created by their neighbors. Is there apprehension that you might not understand what you see, or know what is going on or say something wrong? I’m going to see if I can dispel that fear.
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