NorthCountryARTS has announced a pair of one-day self-guided artist studio tours on consecutive weekends. The first, highlighting artists in Glens Falls, will be held on Saturday, August 4 from 10 am to 5 pm.
The second tour will be Saturday, August 11, from 10 am to 5 pm highlighting artists in the Lake George and North Warren region of Warren County. » Continue Reading.
The Lake George Land Conservancy (LGLC) has announced a family-friendly party at Up Yonda Farm on Saturday, August 18, from 11 am to 1 pm to celebrate its 30th anniversary.
The free event will feature local food trucks, drink vendors, face painting and more as a way to engage and thank all of the organization’s friends, supporters and community partners. » Continue Reading.
After a stellar 30-year career as a professional engraver of bank notes, artwork, and other items, John Casilear had left the industry to become a fulltime painter, and a very good one — a creator of lovely, detailed landscapes epitomized by artists of the Hudson River School. Even as the popularity of that genre faded and the American art world followed new paths, he was still the frequent recipient of praise and admiration. General assessments of his artistic capabilities were positive, and even glowing.
“There are very few artists belonging to the American school of landscape painters who have achieved such widespread popularity as John W. Casilear…. Mr. Casilear is a great lover of pastoral scenes, and some of his most notable pictures of this character have been drawn from the neighborhood of Lake George, and the Genesee Valley…. His pictures when sent from the easel are as harmonious as a poem, and it is this perfect serenity in their handling which is so attractive to connoisseurs…. He is one of the most popular landscape painters of the day” (The Art Journal, 1876). » Continue Reading.
At their recent 2018 Annual Meeting, The FUND for Lake George announced $443,000 in grant awards across each of The FUND’s “four portals to protection” — Science of Solutions, Invasive Species Prevention and Treatment, Salt Reduction, and Water Quality and Clarity Protection. » Continue Reading.
In the mid-1850s, John Casilear’s career of more than 30 years as an engraver was gradually coming to an end, leaving him financially comfortable and free to focus on painting. He did just that by taking a second trip to Europe in 1857 to compile a fresh collection of ideas and sketches for future subjects, and to paint. While he was away, pieces of his artwork appeared in the 1858 National Academy of Design (NAD) Exhibition in New York City and earned praise from high sources.
Harper’s Weekly glowed: “Mr. Casilear’s power is in exquisitely delicate, vignette-like sketching…. A dreamy tranquility of atmosphere, with delicate-hued hills, a thoughtful spire, a gleaming brook — beauty in repose, and in detail — these are the subjects in whose delineation Mr. Casilear is so eminently successful.” » Continue Reading.
MOONSHINE. In hand-painted, hastily scrawled letters, the sign implies covert activity at Washington County’s first legal distillery since Prohibition. It’s an invitation that’s hard to resist.
Conjuring images of ‘shiners lurking deep in the surrounding mountains in the dark of night, the sign may get you in the door, but the secretive allure of moonshining stops there. As John and Robin McDougall will attest, the road leading to Lake George Distilling Company was lengthy, expensive, and definitely legal.
Nearing retirement, the McDougalls were looking for self-sufficiency in a livelihood they would also enjoy. John, an experienced beer and wine maker, credits the History Channel show Modern Marvels on distilling for planting the grains of possibility. New York State’s Farm Distillery Act, enacted in 2007, allowed them to ferment. The timing was perfect. » Continue Reading.
Notable American engraver John Casilear took on various projects, including vignettes for book illustrations. In 1839, he worked on the designs for The Token and Atlantic Souvenir, an annual gift book whose contributors at the time included Nathaniel Hawthorne. But in 1840 he embarked on a new adventure, assuming the life of a painter, which began with a trip to Europe to sketch scenery and study the work of the Old Masters.
His companions on the journey were portrait artist Thomas Rossiter and Casilear’s two best friends, John Kensett and Asher Durand. All would one day be identified as artists of the Hudson River School.
They traveled on the world’s largest steamship, the British Queen, and spent much of their time in the countryside on sketching trips, plus viewing the works of European artists at every opportunity. Among the cities they visited were London, Rome, and Paris. Experts later noted the influence of France’s Claude Lorrain as evident in many of Casilear’s landscapes. » Continue Reading.
Artistry — in terms of painting, drawing, sketching, etc. — escapes me. While I admire and enjoy it, the combination of vision, creativity, and especially ability seems foreign, even though I lived with it while growing up. Through learning to read and constantly employing skills in that area, I gradually developed a certain comfort in the world of words, but none of it came to me magically, which is how I viewed the artistic capabilities of two of my siblings: without any lessons or instructions, they could just do it. » Continue Reading.
The Lake George Land Conservancy (LGLC) is set to kick off its 2018 Living Lands Series on Wednesday, June 27, with “Adirondack Bear Behavior,” presented by DEC Big Game Biologist Jim Stickles.
Stickles is one of six different presenters of the LGLC’s annual talk series, which continues each Wednesday evening at 5:30 pm until August 22 at the LGLC office in Bolton Landing (no presentation on July 4th). » Continue Reading.
The FUND for Lake George has presented a Water Quality and Clarity Protection Grant of $50,000 to the Town of Bolton. This funding is expected to be applied toward upgrading the Bolton Wastewater Treatment Plant, specifically for the installation of a Woodchip Bioreactor that will reduce the levels of nitrates entering Lake George.
This measure was a recommendation of the Lake George Waterkeeper’s report “Bolton Bay (Lake George, Warren County) Water Quality Assessment – a Monitoring Program to Evaluate Current Water Quality Issues.” The grant award is among the investments being made by The FUND to complete The Model for Enduring Protection of Lake George. » Continue Reading.
The Adirondack Park Agency (APA) Board approved amendments to the Black River Wild Forest, the Cranberry Lake Boat Launch and the Lake George Beach and Battlefield Unit Management Plans at its June 2018 Board meeting.
What follows is part of APA’s press release describing the changes. The Unit Management Plans can be found on the Department of Environmental Conservation’s UMP webpage.
The Adirondack Park Agency (APA) will hold its monthly meeting at its headquarters in Ray Brook, NY on Thursday, June 8th, 2018.
The meeting will cover proposed enhancements to the Olympic Jumping Complex, proposed amendments to the Black River and Cranberry Lake Boat Launch, Lake George Battlefield, Gore Mountain, Saranac Lake Wild Forest, and Grasse River UMPs, a private RV campground, and more.
What follows is the agenda issued by the APA: » Continue Reading.
The Lake George Land Conservancy (LGLC) has been awarded a $20,000 matching grant from the Cloudsplitter Foundation to be used to leverage new donations for land protection efforts within its Indian Brook/Northwest Bay Brook Conservation Initiative.
The Cloudsplitter grant award is expected to be put towards the acquisition costs of the 159-acre Wing Pond property, purchased by the LGLC in December of 2016. This property, which is within the scope of the Conservation Initiative, includes 15 acres of sensitive wetlands, 750 feet of stream corridor, important habitat for birds and wildlife (including critical rattlesnake breeding habitat), and four-season public recreational opportunities. » Continue Reading.
With the recent publication of Thomas G. Kane’s Ghost Guns there are now four books in the Matt O’Malley mystery thriller series.
The series also includes Desperate Hours, Desperate Days, and Kateri’s Treasure, all set in the area in and around Bolton Landing, Glens Falls, Lake George and the Adirondack Park.
Each explores a bit of local history and flavor, and considers a serious theme. The latest, Ghost Guns, deals with untraceable guns and protecting water quality, when an arms merchant seeks to use Lake George to demonstrate a powerful new chemical weapon. » Continue Reading.
The Lake George Land Conservancy (LGLC) has protected 37 acres in the hamlet of Huletts Landing, Washington County, by purchasing a 33.3-acre upland piece and a conservation easement on the adjoining lower 3.7-acres lakefront property on Lake George. This conservation project is expected to provide permanent water quality protection by preventing the development of uplands directly above the lake, viewshed protection, and the addition of a small, family-friendly recreational opportunity.
A press release from the LGLC said the organization intends to make “modest improvements to the uplands property to allow for minimal passive recreational use.” A small parking area is expected to be identified so as to not interfere with traffic on Bluff Head Road, and a short trail will lead to one or two picnic tables installed at the lookout area. » Continue Reading.
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