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| Saranac River Permanent Rapids |
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| Black Pond Inlet |
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| Fast Water Saranac River |
The 2014 event had about 80 artists registered, not all of whom displayed for the competition. There were a great many accomplished painters and some advant garde work on display, also,"how could it be plein air if you spent 26 hours on it and it looks like a photo". No one in our group of five from PAPTIR were award winners or enjoyed a lot of sales success. The event seemed to drain our energy and part of that was having to have your framed paintings in by 9 to 10 am Sunday instead of the past 10 to 11- perhaps because of the record number of artists. It's hard to finish framing, photograph your painting (in case it sells), pack up your suitcase, and leave the rental in decent shape to rescue your security deposit, drive 10 miles, find a parking space, and lug your paintings to the City hall- so early.Yet is is always warming to see painting friends from around New York State and elsewhere and their works displayed on the racks. Of course, only the award winners, agree with the judges choices. In spite of the litany of text book criteria the judges express as utilized in the process- it all comes down to subjectivity, and the wise let it go at that. On the top left is a 16 x 12 inch oil on linen, Saranac River Permanent Rapids. This section of the Saranac is about 6 miles on River Road from Bloomingdale. For kayaks it is class 3 rapids. It was fun painting it and comfortable in the shade on the bank with a nice breeze. On the top right is Black Pond Inlet, 14 x 11 inch oil on linen. It is located on Keese Mill Road at the back end of Paul Smith's Visitor Interpretation Center (VIC). The VIC is acres of marshes, ponds, trails, streams, used in Paul Smith's College degree programs for Forestry and related disciplines. I painted a 12 x 9 inch version of the same scene (with the large pitcher plant on the foreground log) in the 2013 event and went back to paint it again. The 9 x 12 version was one of two paintings I had hanging in the VIC Plein Air Invitational Show 7/26-8/28. Friday evening at a painters barbecue at the VIC I learned that it had sold to someone from Erie PA.
All of the pieces in the show were done "en plein air" at the VIC. Eleven artists displayed 21 works.
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| Lake Clear Carpenter Road |
The 9 x 12 oil, Fast Water Saranac River, is a painting knife on a linen panel. Painted another late afternoon at the same spot on Permanent Rapids again in the shade in a bug-less breeze. To the right, Lake Clear Carpenter Road, is on the way to our rental camp on Lake Clear. I made a studio painting out of the plein air as I repainted the road and the dappled light. My original road looked like a set of stairs with alternating light and dark strips. Must have been the relentless mosquitoes in the woods. I had loaned my bug spray to the man an woman returning down the hill from a walk with their little dogs. It was quite a challenging hilly, curvy, and bumpy road in sections down to a "Hole in The Woods", which was the Carpenter family original name for the road. This was the only section that was a Birch tree forest.
Looking forward to the 2015 event and have already reserved the camp we had in 2013.
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