Plein Air Artist Statements

Elisabeth Barnett

I’ve been painting in plein air for the last eight years and really enjoy the experience as well as sharing my art with others. Mohonk has special resonance for me because I grew up playing around the grounds and later got married there.

Alex Canelos

I’m a resident of New Paltz, and director of the Sevenfold Guild for Collaborative Art.

Linda Champanier

The Catskill Mountains inspire me to explore painting the beauty and magic of the earth, living things, sky, and water. My plein air paintings capture moments and mood with spontaneity. Each painting evokes memories of that specific day’s weather, light, and the time spent outdoors. I hope to create a dialogue between the artist and viewer, so that people can tell their own stories that the paintings evoke.

Cathy Copeland

I am a local pastel landscape artist and an avid hiker. I grew up with these mountains as my playground and love to paint them.

Aliza Driller

I use making of art as a meditation to connect to nature and life force. My work asks the viewer to connect to the world of nature with reverence and find calm in its patterns and beauty. I have been a visual arts educator for 37 years, professional craftswomen, fine artist and a yoga practitioner combining these modalities to find personal voice and interpret the world around us. My work style varies greatly from mixed media collages to interpretive landscapes made in varying media.

Staats Fasoldt

I am a watercolorist and teacher. My paintings are interpretations of nature that stress spontaneity as method.

Carl Grauer

I am a painter based in Poughkeepsie, NY in the beautiful Hudson Valley. I primarily work in oil, painting contemporary representational portraits and at times surrealistic paintings. I also offer portrait commissions. Born in rural Kansas, the youngest of four, I left to complete my degrees in human biology and an MFA in medical illustration from the University of Kansas and Michigan, respectively. Upon the sudden death of my brother in 2012, I committed his life to an authentic pursuit to his passion of art making.

Lindsey Guile

During the isolation in the spring and summer of 2020 I embraced plein air painting landscapes as a way to connect with people but to also stay socially distanced. The world slowing down also allowed me to explore more of the Hudson Valley than I had previously. Landscape painting is also a great addition to my professional practice as a figurative artist and college educator.

Barbara Holt

I am a longtime Hudson Valley Artist. After a career in Art Education, I have been able to devote my time to landscape painting. I am a former member of Roost Studios, currently belong to Art Society of Kingston and the Woodstock Artists Association and Museum. I presently have work on exhibit at Emerge Gallery in Saugerties, New York, as well as ASK and WAAM. I have participated before in the Plein Air Events. Follow me on Instagram: BarbaraHoltArt.

Pam Krimsky

I moved to the Hudson Valley Region to paint from the landscape while still in Queen College, where I graduated with an MFA in Painting. From the 1990’s until 2007, I lived overseas and returned again, to the Hudson Valley. I have been chosen in 2019 and 2020 to have work included in the prestigious Art In The Loft, in Millbrook. I am a member of NAWA, The Mohonk Preserve and many regional Arts organizations, I have shown internationally, and I show regularly.

Elaine Langer

I am a pastel and watercolor artist loving to paint outdoors. I also happen to be a biologist and painting nature is one of my passions. I often paint scenes with an emphasis on color. I believe color tells a story of emotion and love to push color to the limits.

Kirsten McAllister

I am originally from Nova Scotia, Canada and having lived in Asia and Europe. I have settled in New Paltz for the last eight years and have fallen in love with this area. I have been a long time hiker and have been particularly inspired by the natural beauty of the many changing colors of the ridge and surrounding landscape. My paintings are influenced by this landscape and aim to capture some of its raw beauty using paint and mixed media to create tactile surfaces.

Chrissy Pahucki

When I first started painting en plein air in 2005, it was a perfect way for me to get back into painting and to relax from the demands of teaching and motherhood. I went out each week for a few hours with a group of artists. I grew to love the quiet and the challenge of capturing my location in paint. Eventually, I started bringing the children with me. They also greatly enjoyed painting in plein air beside me. That pastime has evolved into professionally competing in plein air competitions from Maine to New Mexico. I paint mostly natural landscapes with acrylics or oils. I am especially interested in the way water affects the geology, color and vegetation of the environment. I love the way that traveling to paint and painting to travel has become such a rewarding part of my life.

Artie Raphael

I would like to quote something my father wrote about the joy of painting. “Even if you have never painted before, you will find painting can change leisure time from a threatening or boring expanse of days into some of the happiest hours of your life.”

Mitchell Saler

I am a fine artist who primarily paints realistic landscapes in oil. In my works, I enjoy conveying vastness, dramatic lighting, and atmospheric effects. I exhibit my art in a number of venues and participate in plein air painting events. I am a member of the Salmagundi Club in NYC, the Wallkill River School, the Goshen Art League, the Orange County Arts Council, the Middletown Art Group, and the River Valley Artists Guild. I graduated with an Associate Degree in Visual Arts from SUNY Orange in Middletown, NY, and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting and Drawing, summa cum laude, from SUNY New Paltz. I have received awards in various art exhibits including from the Salmagundi Club. I live in Middletown, NY, and have been teaching art at local venues as well as private lessons.

Dan Shornstein

My formal return to art occurred about ten years ago after meeting Hudson Valley painter Richard Lisle. I studied with Richard for several years and was soon immersed in plein air painting throughout the Hudson Valley and the coast of Maine. I quickly learned a plethora of composition techniques and skills to create stronger work such as establishing strong values, the power of an underpainting, mixing color, and the use of light. In recent years I studied with some wonderful artists including Donald Elder, Kate McGlouglin, Dan Graziano, and David Lussier. All have inspired me.

Over the past several years I have dived into both studio and plein air work, inspired by the stunning landscapes of forests, streams and mountains in our region. During a painting retreat on Maine’s Monhegan Island last summer, I completed a series of seascapes which are included in a current solo exhibition of my work at Lifebridge Sanctuary in Rosendale. I want my paintings to serve as an invitation to take an emotional journey of wonder, contemplation and exploration.

With climate change, our natural world is vulnerable and suffering and I believe that highlighting nature’s beauty and creating connections to it is not only soul-satisfying but also a moral imperative.

I currently serve as education director at The Ashokan Center and was a former school principal and teacher for over 38 years.

Jerry Teters

I’ve been painting and teaching art in New York schools for over 30 yrs. My residence has been in New Paltz since 1995. Besides being a visual artist and teacher, I’ve been a professional drummer for 45 yrs.

Marianne Tully

I mainly work plein air with a group of artists in the Hudson Valley and Catskills doing oil and watercolor landscapes. I wish to capture the tones and forms of nature in my paintings, giving the viewer some of the same experience that I have felt in confronting the exquisite beauty and reality of the earth. I focus on the interplay of light and shadow while using lively brush strokes and atmospheric techniques. Because I paint on site for the first stages of the work, I have developed a strong sense of place and of the dynamic order of the natural world.

Marlene Wiedenbaum

Master Pastelist and Board Member of the Pastel Society of America, I have been painting the many protected landscapes of the Hudson Valley for over thirty years. I teach landscape and still life pastel painting at the Woodstock School of Art and exhibit throughout the tri-state area.

Artist Participating in Advance

The artists listed below will be creating their art on Mohonk Preserve in the weeks leading up to the June 11th event. Visitors to the Preserve may encounter these artists randomly at other Mohonk Preserve trailheads.

Mira Fink

I have been painting for about 30 years and love painting the beauty of the Hudson Valley. I work in watercolors and acrylics and enjoy working both in the studio and on location. I have exhibited my art in galleries locally and regionally over the last 25 years and am represented locally by Maglyn’s Dream and the Mohonk Mountain House gift shop in New Paltz. I have had the pleasure of teaching art and environmental studies to both children and adults over the years and love inspiring others to express their creativity and to appreciate nature.

Stacie Flint

What is most notable about my oil or acrylic paintings and commissioned portraits are the vibrant color and energy. I use imagery of people, places and objects from life and imagination and reinvent them through the creative process alive in me as a joyful expressionism. When I’m painting, I think, how do I want to feel? The answer is, good! Darkness and light exist together within, and besides, fun is worth having.

Lynne Friedman

I am a landscape oil painter living and working in Rosendale. I have had solo exhibits in NYC, including Noho, gallery, Prince Street Gallery, three museum shows, and seven artist residencies around the world. I participated in the U.S. Dept. of State Art Program shown in three U.S. Embassies in Africa and Southeast Asia.

Tarryl Gabel

I am primarily a plein air painter and am actively traveling to participate in plein air competitions. I love working outdoors on location and painting sunrises the most. I also love to paint still life, wildlife, western-themed paintings when I cannot be outdoors.

Katherine Gray

I moved to New Paltz in 1995 because the environment is so beautiful. It is a great source for my inspiration. I am a professional artist and a juried member of many significant art organizations, most regional are the Northeast Watercolor Society and the Woodstock Artists Association and Museum.

Emeline Hastings

I work in all mediums including oil, acrylic and watercolor and maintain a home studio in New Paltz.

David Holt

I am a painter, printmaker and author living in New Paltz New York.

Ward Lamb

I am a Hudson Valley portrait and plein air artist.

Michael Lokensgaard

I am an artist living in Ulster County since 1981.

Laura Martinez-Bianco

The Shawangunk Ridge is a very special place for me. I grew up with the ridge always in my view. I love the subtle ways light reveals the valleys, gaps and gorges as it crosses over the mountain. The contrast of the flat fertile fields in the foreground and the large ever-changing sky above has been an inspiration for me over and over.

Adrienne Mierzwa

I was born and raised in in Manhattan’s East Village. My husband and I moved to High Falls in 2017 to property my parents have owned since 1968. After attending the High School of Art and Design, I studied illustration and painting at Parsons School of Design, as well as taking courses at The School of Visual Arts, The National Academy of Design, and a semester at Instituto Allende, in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

I work in oils, watercolors and drawing media; and my subjects include landscape, still life and figures. I recently had a two-month exhibition at the Stone Ridge Library.

Lynda Pyka

I have 25 years in the entertainment industry as a costumer with Tony nomination and finally Mother Nature called for me to leave it all and paint the great outdoors. Not looking back for past 6 years, I have done several events and won several awards.

Jenna Tompkins, BSN, RN, CLC

I am an acrylic and oil painter from Marlboro, New York. My formal education is actually in nursing, where I spent the last few years practicing in women’s health and postpartum care. Over the past seven years, I have painted part-time and been in several exhibitions, both solo and group settings, as well as doing portrait commission work. After deep reflection following the peak of the pandemic, I have made painting my full-time practice. I am now able to solely focus on my art as well as spending time with my beloved animals and family.