: The Lyme Art Association will present "Plein Air Coast to Coast,"
the East Coast premier exhibition of 30 signature members of the
Plein Air Painters of America (PAPA), a prestigious organization
of contemporary artists primarily from the West and Southwest.
The exhibition will be on view from September 14 through October
18.
An opening reception on Saturday, September 13, from 5 to 7 pm,
will feature a Fresh Paint Auction of 12 PAPA instructors who
captured the Connecticut landscape as they conducted weeklong
plein air painting workshops for 150 other artists prior to the
auction. The donation is $10 at the door, and proceeds benefit
the Lyme Art Association's exhibition and art education programs.
PAPA, founded in California in 1986, constitutes a "fellowship of
professional artists dedicated to the historic tradition of
painting directly from life," according to the group's mission
statement. "Through this approach of first-hand observation, our
members strive to more fully explore and respond to the timeless
beauty that surrounds us. We promote a heightened visual
appreciation of the world by sharing with the public our combined
knowledge and experience through workshops and exhibitions of the
highest caliber."
The PAPA artists, who hail from Arizona, New Mexico, Montana,
Colorado, Nevada and Washington, have traveled worldwide and are
accustomed to the constant pressure of changing light, and the
rugged terrain of mountains and deserts, sometimes encountering
snow squalls or worse.
One painter was plagued by fire ants while painting in Texas;
another was attacked by a wild turkey. Matt Smith of Scottsdale,
Ariz., was stalked by a bear. Joan Marron-LaRue of Tucson, Ariz.,
was threatened by packs of dogs while painting in Russia. Even
the annual paint-out at Catalina Island is fraught with warnings
of rattlesnakes, wild buffalo and boar. Still, as Smith attests,
"If you want to capture a blizzard, you have to be out there
standing in it. A photograph will not do it justice."
Presumably, the visiting artists will have a less threatening
experience painting the Connecticut shore and river valley.
Painting sites include the villages and marinas of Old Lyme and
Essex, points along the Connecticut River, the Lieutenant River,
marshes and estuaries, Long Island Sound, Ashlawn Farm and
Harkness Park in Waterford. Fortunately, too, this landscape and
"Lyme Light" that so attracted the early Lyme Colony artists in
1899, is still a painter's paradise, unmarred by commercial
development.
The popularity of plein air painting spread from France in the
mid-Nineteenth Century and spawned numerous art colonies on both
coasts. Henry Ward Ranger founded the Lyme Colony, which was
later dominated by Childe Hassam and other Impressionists who, in
1914 established the Lyme Art Association. Many art colonies
sprang up along the California coast, the most famous south of
Los Angeles at Laguna Beach, flourished at nearly the same time
as the Lyme Colony.
PAPA links to that colony are through Roy Rose (grandnephew of
noted California Impressionist Guy Rose), who encouraged Denise
Burns to found an organization for contemporary plein air
painters. Burns handpicked 20 artists to participate in the first
annual Plein Air Painters Festival in 1986. The success of that
show has been repeated annually at the Avalon Casino as the
Catalina Plein Air Exhibition and Sale, one of the most
successful art events in the country.
An interesting footnote to the PAPA's early California roots and
the Lyme Art Colony: In 2000, the Florence Griswold Museum
(adjacent to the Lyme Art Association) mounted an exhibition
titled, "The California Impressionists at Laguna," that looked at
the relationships between the California and Connecticut
colonies. Among the artists represented was Guy Rose (1865-1925).
Two previous exhibitions with that common theme were, in 1997,
"East Meets West: American Impressionism" at the Fleischer
Museum, Scottsdale, Ariz., and in 1999 at the Laguna Art Museum,
"Colonies of American Impressionism: Cos Cob, Old Lyme,
Shinnecock and Laguna Beach."
The Lyme Art Association is at 90 Lyme Street. For
information, call 860-434-7802.
