Art at Tilton – Deerfield Impressions by Adrienne Cremins

Artist’s Statement:

The Pioneer Valley in Western Massachusetts has beautiful scenery, as anyone who has visited will attest – mountains, rivers, lakes and ponds throughout many towns.  I’ve been fortunate to live in Deerfield for over 25 years, within 10 minutes of some of the most beautiful landscapes in the valley.

I have a BFA from Cooper Union, and when my children were grown, I started getting back to painting.  I began with pastels, sitting in my car on the side of the road.  However, when I began painting in oils, my practice became to visit a location, take photos, and use them as reference, together with my memory of the scene, for a painting done in the studio.

Last year, I began working en plein air, painting outdoors on location in Deerfield and a whole new world opened up. Plein air is a completely different way of working.  In one or two hours , before the light changes, you try to capture a scene.  There is always so much more to see than there is time to get it on canvas!

As you work, the light is constantly changing, emphasizing different colors, changing forms, so you need to make decisions on the fly about what to spend time on, what notes you need to make, how to articulate the scene.  Sometimes everything comes together – and the result is a complete painting.  More often, it’s a note, a sketch, or an experiment in articulating light and form.

Painting an impression en plein air celebrates what is happening right in the moment. For me, it has also become a meditation – a way to focus on and appreciate a very beautiful part of the world, on canvas.