![]() ![]() “Any time you paint or draw something, you look at it through a deeper lens. Plein air painting demands that you immerse yourself into one specific place and get to know it deeply - and the Hudson Valley has much natural beauty deserving of a closer look. Perhaps one explanation for the longstanding tradition of plein air painting in the Hudson Valley is the technique’s ability to foster a deep connection with nature. Retired New York state trooper Ken Wilson finds that plein air painting has released him from some of the stress and pressures he felt working in law enforcement. The festival also opens the door for members of the public to continue the tradition of plein air painting in the Hudson Valley with its Painter’s Pass, available to anyone regardless of their skills with a paintbrush. “It’s a great way to build fellowship with other artists who you have a spiritual connection with,” he says. This festival, and others like it, also help foster camaraderie among artists who often work alone, said former festival participating artist Ken Wilson, a retired New York state trooper who now has an art studio in Cohoes. “The Hudson Valley also felt historical, seeing how the cities and towns have developed.” “I realized there’s still a good chunk of wilderness out there,” Langford says. ![]() Katie Langford, an artist and social worker in Glens Falls who participated in the 2022 festival, says it offered an opportunity to get to know the Hudson Valley more intimately. “It’s important to do plein air programs to encourage people to appreciate and cherish the land, so we don’t lose the flavor of this area,” says Sarah Fortner Pierson, committee member for the Hudson Valley Plein Air Festival and executive director of the Wallkill River Center for the Arts. To point artists toward particularly scenic areas, the festival provides all participants access to an online map with around 50 suggested painting sites, ranging from historic villages and public parks to private properties that have opened up for the festival. It has selected 46 participating painters to enjoy a week of outdoor paint-outs, public demonstrations, competitions, a gallery exhibit, and more. Presented by the Wallkill River Center for the Arts, the festival is approaching its 8th year. (Photo: Courtesy Hudson Valley Plein Air Festival) Keeping a Hudson Valley Tradition Alive Artist Amy Storr takes advantage of a regional Painter’s Pass. 9-14, the festival is just one of many ways the tradition lives on in the Hudson Valley today. You may even see artists set up their easels at spots made famous by artists of the Hudson River School during the Hudson Valley Plein Air Festival. Nearly 200 years later, plein air painting is as alive as ever in the Hudson Valley. Instead of following step-by-step instruction manuals as in the past, Cole used the direct study of nature to inform his famous landscape paintings, giving them an expressiveness and romanticism that would define America’s first artistic movement: the Hudson River School. This way of working, which involves sketching and painting outdoors to depict the dynamic qualities of weather and light, was a relatively new approach for Cole. In 1825, artist Thomas Cole journeyed up the Hudson to capture the magnificence of the Catskills en plein air. ![]()
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