Painting wild places...

I had a great time painting this past week as part of the Keeseville Plein Air Festival. It was organized by Brittany Christenson, Executive Director of AdkAction as a way to draw attention to the revitalization efforts at hand in this historic community. It was also modeled on the Adirondack Plein Air Festival, which has brought attention and economic benefits to my community of Saranac Lake for the past 9 years.

We toured some of the beautiful local farms where new, young farmers are raising organic produce, grass-fed livestock, and families. The Ausable River roars through downtown Keeseville on it's way to the Ausable Chasm and offered many painting opportunities. Artists were asked to consider subject matter with the theme "Better Days" - man made structures that have "seen better days", as an effort to draw attention to both the heritage of the community and the need for revitalization.

As usual, I followed my own path, spending more of my time looking for and painting the wilder places I could find in this region that is both part of the Adirondacks and the Champlain Valley. A local Peru artist showed me photos of a really interesting beaver pond about 3/4th's of the way up Pole-O-Moonshine Mountain and that grabbed my attention. I spent the entire 2nd day of the event up there trying to record the tangled fallen trees and beaver ponds.

I enjoyed painting at Mace Chasm Farm, amazed at how natural and healthy it functioned - did you know they the cattle and sheep were moved to different sections of pasture 2 or 3 times a day. This is so they don't overgraze or over fertilize any one section. Wildflowers are planted around the base of fruit trees because they help draw water up to the roots. Everything has a purpose and fits into the natural flow of things - a great example of man and nature in harmony. I spend hours painting a view of the barn from a farm road between 2 pastures, serenaded by the sheep and cows. I was standing in a mass of wildflowers and kept looking down at them as I painted - so when done with the barn, I did a 2nd painting of the flowers at my feet!

This time I opted not to paint the roaring waterfalls of the Ausable (I painted them last year at the inaugural Keeseville event), but found a more pastoral location where the broad, flat river, seeming to be only inches deep, lazily flowed on before reaching the drops as it enters the Chasm. Only the spot really challenged me. I was initially attracted to the broad bend of the river and the rays of sunlight flashing through the trees on the opposite shore. But, as it always happens, the light changed as I painted and I struggled with how to portray that. That painting remains unfinished - I'd like to return on another sunny afternoon to finish it. However I did go back the next morning, with grey skies and drizzle, and painted beneath the open tailgate of my car. I didn't have to worry about changing light and shadows on this day.