art, Contemporary Art, festivals, galleries, Hudson River School, landscape painting, music, plein air painting

Weekend in the Catskills – 9/26/14

Ellen Wong
Artist Ellen Wong

With temperatures in the high 70s, low 80s, this weekend seems like a dream: fall colors and sunshine, music, art and community – the Catskills have it all.

Saturday, September 27 from 3 to 6 pm Longyear Gallery in Margaretville is hosting an opening reception for artist Ellen Wong: “The Road Show” – an exhibit of twenty-five paintings and drawings depicting splendid Catskill Mountains scenery. Ellen Wong is an accomplished landscape painter originally from Brooklyn. She studied Art at Brooklyn College, and has been the recipient of many grants and fellowships, including the New York State Council on the Arts Decentralization Grant Program, administered in Delaware County by Roxbury Arts Group, as well as a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship; in addition, she was a teacher / artist at Skidmore College. Ellen is a founding member of Longyear Gallery in Margaretville. She has had many exhibitions both in New York City and the Catskills. You can find more about Longyear Gallery at longyeargallery.org.

Roxbury Arts Group (RAG), a premier arts organization in the Catskill Mountains, is hosting this weekend the 17th Catskill Mountain Quilters Hall of Fame Quilt Show featuring quilters from five counties: Delaware, Schoharie, Greene, Sullivan and Ulster. This year’s theme is “Let’s Celebrate Quilting”; quilting has had long tradition in America, dating back to the pre-colonial period, and then being expanded by the settlers. Initially designed as utilitarian products, in time quilts became valued for their artistic appeal as well. The Quilters Show at RAG will take place Saturday, September 27 and Sunday, September 28 from 10 am to 4 pm. For more information, visit roxburyartsgroup.org.

Greater Roxbury Learning Initiative (GRLIC) is presenting RoxFest, its second annual rock concert this Saturday, September 27 at 12 noon. The event will take place at Plattekill Mountain on Plattekill Mountain Road in Roxbury. The proceeds will benefit GRLIC’s educational programs. For more information, go to roxfestny.com.

Thomas Cole National Historic Site is having a Community Day event this Sunday, September 28, from 1 to 4 pm. Thomas Cole’s home at Cedar Grove as well as its galleries will be open to the public free of charge. Cole, the founder of the Hudson River School of Painting, lived and worked at Cedar Grove from 1833 to 1848. Born in England in 1801, Cole immigrated to the United States with his family in 1818. He took his first trip to the Catskills in 1825, and in 1832, seven years later, he opened his studio in Catskill, Greene County. Initially trained as a portrait painter, Cole switched to landscape shortly after. His most famous paintings include The Titan’s Goblet (1833), The Course of Empire series (1834 – 1836), and The Oxbow (1836). The Cedar Grove Main House (built in 1815 in the Federal style), as well as The Old Studio, and The Special Exhibition Gallery are open by guided tour, Wednesday through Sunday, May through October. For more information, visit thomascole.org.

The Rhinebeck Arts Festival is taking place this weekend at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds in Rhinebeck. The festival celebrates all crafts and artistic disciplines: ceramics, glass, fiber, mixed media, photography, jewelry and more. Over two hundred artists and crafters from all over the country will participate in the event; Hudson Valley furniture makers will also be showcased. There will be music, dance, gourmet food and drinks. For more information, go to http://artrider.com/RHI14.html.