And the Hudson River School of Landscape

Date: July 19 through August 22
Location: Kaaterskill Fine Arts, Route 23A, Main Street, Hunter, NY
Hours: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday 10am-6pm; Sunday 10am-5pm
Information: 518 263 2060

Famed artist Jacob Collins and a dedicated group of artists—Collen Barry, Ryan S. Brown, Nancy Fletcher, Arturo Garcia, Amaya Gurpide, Nicholas Hiltner, Joshua Langstaff, Hyeseung Marriage-Song, Arantzazu Martinez, Greg Mortenson, Mikel Olazabal, Jeremy Oertel, Travis Seymour and Tim Smith—spent the summer of 2007 combing the Catskill peaks, drawing and sketching the details of rocks, trees, light and water. (They also taught master classes at Sugar Maples that summer in their spare time.) All winter they have been producing finished masterworks based on those field studies and this exhibit is the first public showing of those works.

The show is going to be a mixture of field studies (in graphite or ink), color studies (in oil and watercolor) and finished works in oil. The combination of finished and unfinished works, detailed rock and tree studies in graphite, and notes of color on canvas give the viewer an insight into the process of the Hudson River School Style of painting which insists upon a meticulous, careful and very patient study of nature, and the natural elements. The artists in the show come from as far away as Australia, Mexico and Spain.

To quote Roger Kimball of The Wall Street Journal, "...Mr. Collins is a cynosure of the new figurative art, a sought-after teacher and an increasingly prominent artist... a captivating reminder that the bravura technical mastery of the Hudson River School is not only alive and well but still capable of producing works of keen aesthetic expressiveness... This is art that requires no excuses, no alibi, no apologies. It is art that is confident, accomplished and traditional.... Mr. Collins is an artistic pioneer... he has the wit to know that the most demanding mysteries are those that are inseparable from our fragile, human nature. The newest realities are also the oldest, the freshest art the most perennial.... Jacob Collins is the real thing. Criticism isn't prophesy, but I will end with a prediction: You'll be hearing more, a lot more, about him and about the kind of art he practices in the years to come."

painting above, Vermont Sugarmaple, by Jacob Collins