Douglas David.

STOWE THROUGH ARTISTS EYES

story / robert kiener photographs / glenn callahan
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Jack Liberman.

STOWE THROUGH ARTISTS EYES

Jack Liberman I painted this sunrise over Mt. Elmore in the 1970s from what used to be one of our classs most popular spots, several miles north of Stowe off Stagecoach Road, says Ohio-based Jack Liberman, a longtime student of Frank Mason. It shows why Stowe and the surrounding area are so popular with painters. There arent many places that offer such a breathtaking combination of expansive valleys, mountains, and powerful skies. For an artist its the best of all worlds.
jacklstudio.com

Douglas David I fell in love with this apple tree off Tansy Hill Road the first summer I painted it in Stowe in 1997. Its still my favorite and I always return to it, says Indiana-based painter Douglas David. In fact, I make a point of making it the first, and last, scene I paint when I come to Stowe each June. I see it as a metaphor for life; its never the same two years in a row and it gets more interesting with age. We should all be so lucky.

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douglasdavid.com

ts 4:30 on a crisp June morning and a gaggle of determined painters is lugging portable French box easels, oil paints, canvases, and steaming cups of coffee through Misty Meadows dew-wet grass, a mile or so north of Stowe. Like soldiers reconnoitering a battlefield, each chooses a vantage point to best catch the early morning sun. They need to be ready as the sun will soon crest over the Worcester Range and bathe Stowes iconic steepletopped Community Church in a warm, honeyed glow. Its what some of them call magic time. These dozen or so painters are pros. Many of them make a living selling their paintings, most have won awards, and all of them are devoted to the incredibly complex art of, as Cezanne said, not reproducing nature on canvas but representing it. Theres not much chitchat as they unpack their gear, steady their easels, and begin roughing out the first hints of todays compositions onto canvasses and boards. All of these painters also have something else in common; theyve been coming to Stowe every June for decades. Each summer they pack up their SUVs or station wagons with a month-long supply of oil paints, brushes, and canvasses and drive from Ohio, Indiana, Manhattan, Ontario, and elsewhere to spend 30 days painting in and around Stowe. Most of them were first lured to Stowe by the chance to study under the world-renowned master painter Frank Mason, who taught his landscape painting, or en plein air, class here every June for over 30 years.

Like Mason, they were also addicted to what he called Vermonts incomparable light and spectacular skies. Even though Mason died several years ago, his class has kept the artists spirit alive by coming together every June and painting in various sites around Stowe almost daily. Instead of trying to replace Mason, theyve adopted a novel, democratic method of critiquing one anothers work once a week at lively, often wine-fueled, professional crits. While theres no designated leader among them, the memory of Masons advice echoes through every crit. Too dark! he used to bellow at his students as he took a paint-filled sable brush to one of their offerings. Light! Its all about the light, hed exclaim as he slapped a brush full of cadmium yellow paint onto a students painting. NOW were getting somewhere! They work in groups and alone. Some mornings they are up at four oclock to catch the fleeting sunrise. Other days they paint sunsets. Gregg Hill Road, Moss Glen Falls, Cemetery Road: these are some of their favorite spots and ones they return to time and time again. This morning, however, theyre busily painting under the spell of the sun as it glints over the Worcester hills and suddenly bathes the skyline, then the church steeple, then the fields in front of them, in warmth, lightand magic. We asked several of these painters to talk about some of their favorite Stowe paintings. Heres what they said:

Fiona Cooper Fenwick Ive painted on the 170-acre Lyon Farm on Gregg Hill Road countless times because its so beautiful and it means so much to me, says the Hinesburg-based painter Fiona Cooper Fenwick. After living in Burlington for a while I began looking for a place to move to that was so pretty I could merely step outside and paint. Thats when I found Gregg Hill. I loved it so much I rented a home there and stayed for nearly a decade. Mr. Lyon was always happy to let artists set up our easels on his property. We still do. His farmhand Nelson became a good friend and made a point of telling me whenever he let the bulls out of the field so I could paint there.
facebook.com/fcfenwick 123

Jack Winslow This painting of the Stowe church from Cemetery Road is a good example of how I am always trying to translate what I see, not just copy what I see, says Cambridge painter Jack Winslow. The way the light falls on a tree, a shadow on a rock, the branches of a tree; these are all elements that I try to connect to give a painting what Frank Mason called rhythm. Its as important, really more important, than the subject matter, which serves as the inspiration.
winslowartstudio.com; visionsofvermont.org

STOWE THROUGH ARTISTS EYES

Shari Dukes Moss Glen Falls has long been a favorite scene for Frank Masons students because its so beautiful and challenging to paint, says Stowe resident Shari Dukes. I enjoy coming here at midday when the sun is high and filters through the trees to light up the brook and the falls. Its inspirational. Painting here never fails to remind me that living in Stowe is a privilege; theres such breathtaking beauty all around us.
sharidukes.blogspot.com

Corrine Russo and Fiona Cooper Fenwick. Artists tools.

Karen Winslow Last summer I parked my car on Gregg Hill Road when I spotted this dying tree that was wrapped with a colorful vine, says Cambridge-based painter Karen Winslow. I loved the way the sunlight hit the tree and how the dying tree and the lively vine seemed to support one another. The way the road curved away in the background reminded me that life is a journey, full of twists and turns, and we can only guess at whats around the bend.
winslowartstudio.com; visionsofvermont.org

STOWE GUIDE & MAGAZINE, 2011

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