Plein air artists will find two exhibitions of landscapes worth seeing this summer in Old Lyme, Connecticut, as the Lyme Art Association pulls together shows highlighting the land and architecture of the lower Connecticut River Valley.
“Old Lyme Landscapes: A Salute to Our Founders” features work from artist members of the Lyme Art Association that depict scenes and situations painted and made famous by Lyme Impressionists of the early to mid-1900s. It will be on view through July 28.
“Farm With Clouds,” by Kent Winchell, 2013, oil
“Celebrating Lyme’s Beauty” is a juried exhibition, a collaboration between the Lyme Art Association, the Lyme Land Conservation Trust, and the Lyman Allyn Art Museum in New London, Connecticut. It is on view at the Lyman Allyn Art Museum until June 30, and then the exhibition moves to the Old Lyme Art Association for display from July 6 to September 1. This show consists of local views painted in April and May of this year.
“At this time of year, when the beauty of our local area is at its peak, it’s easy to see why so many American Impressionist painters gathered here in the early 1900s to paint,” says Susan Ballek, executive director of the Lyme Art Association. “What is especially unique about our area is that many of these scenes are still as rural and beautiful as when they were painted by Childe Hassam or Frank Vincent Dumond. That is what these exhibitions are about; to make that direct link from our founding members to today’s painters, and to encourage the appreciation of plein air painting more than 100 years after the Old Lyme Art Colony began.”
